You may have heard about the stories of domestic workers’ struggles and some of the abuses they’ve experienced from their employers.
Recently, the Philippines topped in the cases of people reportedly widely trafficked in the United States.
This is according to the report jointly published by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Polaris, a non-government organization, which helps victims and survivors of human trafficking.
The study defines domestic workers like nannies, house cleaners, and direct care workers for the elderly and people with disabilities. Usually, they are being paid directly by private homeowners, or by agencies, publicly funded programs, and through online platforms.
Based on their data, about 8,000 labor trafficking cases were reported from December 2007 to December 2017 to the Polaris-operated National Human Trafficking Hotline. There were about 1,211 individual cases involved in domestic work.
The study they released in July, entitled “Human Trafficking at Home”, showed that most victims were female adults. There were 100 of them from the Philippines, 60 from Mexico, 33 from the US, 21 from India, 20 from Colombia, and 11 from Indonesia.
Among the most common abuses reported are nonpayment of wages, restricting and monitoring workers’ movements, threats, isolation, confiscation of passports, and indebtedness.
In 2012, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that there were nearly 2 million domestic workers in the US. Majority of them are women of color – both African Americans and immigrants.
The story of Filipinos falling prey to bogus jobs and human traffickers is nothing new.
But the stories of survivors who lived to tell the tale of their hardships is proof that until now, this matter is still going on even in this modern day.
For most, the US is considered as the land of “milk and honey” and a stepping stone to reach a “greener pasture” for their family left in the Philippines.
However, the report said the countries where these domestic helpers come from are having “a vested interest in protecting their citizens against human trafficking”.
“Many countries export labor to boost their national economy with the repatriation of funds to the home country from their nationals employed abroad,” the report said.
According to the central bank of the Philippines, cash remittances increased 4.3 percent to US$28.1 billion, while remittances from the United States rose 5.5 percent in 2017.
Has this been addressed by the Philippine government?
According to a report from the Post, a spokesman for the Embassy of the Philippines in Washington, DC said they have provided “comprehensive help” to all Filipino nationals who are trafficking victims.
He said there have been multiple bilateral labor agreements and the work has been done by the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking.
Also, there are now seven Philippine consulates in the US besides the embassy in Washington. This is apart from the opening of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Los Angeles in order “to provide additional support and services to Filipinos in the West Coast”.
According to the latest American Community Survey US Census Bureau, there are about 4 million Filipinos in America. Most of them are living in California.
