Undaunted, Filipinos head for
Iraq By Meena Janardhan
DUBAI
- The ordeal of a Filipino truck driver freed by
militants after his country withdrew its troops from
Iraq has not deterred Filipino migrant workers from
making their way to the occupied Middle Eastern country
through the United Arab Emirates, despite an official
ban by Manila.
The Philippines banned its
citizens from going to work in Iraq after Angelo de la
Cruz, a father of eight working as a truck driver in
Baghdad, was kidnapped by Islamic militants on July 7
and threatened with decapitation unless Manila withdrew
all its 51 troops from the United States-led coalition
in the country.
About 120 workers due to leave
for Iraq via Dubai on July 8 were stopped by immigration
officials from boarding their flight after President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued the order to halt new
deployments.
"This is not fair," said Joseph
(not his real name), a Filipino construction worker who
was already in Dubai on a visitor's visa and making
plans to leave for Iraq. "The conditions and the
kidnappings do worry me. But I would rather go there
[Iraq] and work than return to my country and my
dependants without any job in hand," he said. "It should
be left to us to decide whether we want to go there or
not."
Joseph is one of many Filipinos who
transit through Dubai and often end up in Iraq
undertaking risky construction work. About 8 million
Filipinos work abroad supporting their families back
home. The total remittances of Filipino migrant workers
amount to billions of dollars a year and for them, Iraq
is just another way to escape the poverty and
unemployment in the Philippines.
According to
available statistics, at least 4,000 Filipinos work in
Iraq, mostly as contractors with the US military and
private companies. Government sources say Filipinos are
most likely the largest single group of foreign workers
in Iraq, with many more unregistered.
"We are
sending carpenters, cooks, administrative assistants,
warehouse workers, laundry-machine operators and drivers
to Iraq regularly and many of them are Filipinos," said
an employee of a recruiting agency in Dubai who did not
want to be named. "The [US]$500-$1,000 a month they earn
in Iraq might not be a fortune, but it's far better than
the pre-tax minimum wage of around $140 they get in
their country."
The recruiting-agency employee
said the ban by the Philippine government would have
little effect on Filipino workers who want to make their
way to Iraq. "Around 100-150 Filipino workers still
leave for Iraq every day" from Dubai, he said. "They
know about the ban and realize that their lives could be
in danger there. But higher wages and burdensome
responsibilities make them turn a blind eye to such
things."
While Filipino workers can be stopped
if they try to make their way to Iraq directly from
Manila, they can circumvent the ban by traveling to
Baghdad from other Middle Eastern countries. Of all the
Middle Eastern countries that employ foreign workers,
the pay in Iraq is still the best, said the employee of
the Dubai recruiting agency.
"It is so obvious
that I can get better pay in Iraq," said Joseph. "I
don't want to settle for less and am willing to take the
risk to do so." Joseph's friend, a driver who only
wanted to be known as Ramon, agreed with him. "I can get
$300 a month if I work in Iraq, compared to back home
where I won't even get half of that," he said.
"It's hard to find jobs in the Philippines. I
won't allow fear or risks to come in my way of earning
money and providing my family with a decent meal every
day," said Ramon. He said he knew there was a great
demand for workers in Iraq. "One company is hiring
around 25,000 people, including construction workers,
secretaries, cooks, engineers and designers, for Iraq.
My friends and I will definitely apply," he said.
Some 4,000 undocumented Filipinos are reportedly
employed in US and British construction projects in
Iraq. Reports said the Filipinos were hired and sneaked
into the war-torn country by US and British companies
without informing the Philippine government.
Amid the reports, Arroyo asked Filipinos in
Iraq, especially those without documents, to get in
touch with the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad. "We are
determined to ensure their safety and keep them out of
harm's way in the event of any crisis or emergency," she
said in a statement.
But deputy presidential
spokesman Ricardo Saludo told reporters in Manila
recently that the government could not monitor the
movement of all Filipinos abroad, especially if they
traveled without proper documents.
"The same
thing can be said of other countries in Asia,
particularly those whose nationals are in Iraq but are
not accounted for by their documents," he said. "And
this is just because of porous borders which allow
people to travel around sometimes with no proper
documentation."
