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[abegailshi-blog]

Overseas Filipino Workers being abused.

Due to the lack of Job opportunities and poor economic growth of our country, among such a large population of Overseas Filipino Workers, their families are poor and the vast majority of them are engaged in low-end services. That is why they tend to migrate abroad for high salary jobs and great opportunities mainly for them to be able to earn, support and give their family a good life. According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (2013), “The number of Filipinos living and working abroad represents about 11% of the total population of the Philippines.” Also, based on the statistical records from Business World (2018), there are over 2.339 million totals of Overseas Filipino Workers all over the world. And out of all, the highest population with OFWs is located at Western Asia and is consisting of 57.1% Filipinos. And next to it is located at East Asia with a percentage of 18.9 Filipino workers. According to Amurao (2018) “There is a huge number of Overseas Filipino Workers worldwide that are mainly employed in the Middle East, wherein a rich source of remittances that would help to fuel the Philippine economy. Which helped the Philippines ranked as the third largest recipient nation of remittances worldwide by the World Bank and Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development.”

One of the crucial national issue and concern that the country is facing now is the Overseas Filipino Workers Welfare or the Philippine domestic security problem. There had been a lot of news about OFWs being abused or maltreated by foreign employer, there were OFWs being raped or worst murdered. One of the most recent and controversial one happened in Kuwait. There had been diplomatic disputes between the Philippines and Kuwait over the killing of a Philippine servant by his employer and her body was found inside a freezer and also in 2016-2017 there were around 185 Filipinos working in Kuwait died, that made President Rodrigo Duterte addressed that, “if the presence of Filipinos was now a burden on Kuwait, allow us to get them out, just don’t hurt them. He pleads that they be given treatment deserving of human being” (Yeo, 2018). The issue obviously brought new variables to the diplomatic disputes between the two countries. Especially those Filipinos working in Kuwait they will bring great pressure to the Philippines’ overseas consular protection work. Variously, Philippine government issued a permanent ban on Filipino workers from going to Kuwait. And once a huge population of Filipino Workers leave Kuwait, it will have a negative impact on local employment and economic development.