Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

The onus is therefore on the country of origin to implement the ban, but
this is not an easy task. As an official from the Philippines Embassy in Jordan
remarked, “our Constitution gives us the right to travel and recruitment
agencies exploit this constitutional right. We cannot discriminate and say,
‘You look like a domestic worker and can’t travel because of the ban.’ In
Jordan, Filipinos can enter on a visa valid for 60 days, and then can convert
it into a work visa.” 25 In Lebanon, another official from the Philippines
Embassy stated that since the imposition of the deployment ban adopted in
2006, 26 the number of domestic workers from the Philippines had actually
increased, with on average 11,000 Filipinos finding jobs in Lebanon each
year. 27 Other countries of origin that have imposed bans face similar limits
on their capacity to enforce them. Corruption and lax emigration controls
in countries of origin also contribute to explaining why the bans do not
necessarily help curb the number of domestic workers migrating. 28 “In
countries where there is a ban, a lot of agencies work clandestinely, without
any licence,” said an official of a recruitment agency in Lebanon. “Since they
are paying money to some people in the Government, they are able to obtain
the necessary documents for the girls to leave the country.” 29
Where deployment bans are in place, domestic workers and PEAs have
colluded to find ways to circumvent the restrictions. As an official from
Winrock International in Bangladesh explained, “the consequences of the
bans imposed by the Government of Bangladesh is that unskilled and semiskilled
women migrant workers mainly migrated through irregular channels
which made them more vulnerable to exploitation”. 30 A Filipina domestic
worker confessed during her interview that “as there is a ban in Lebanon, my
visa was for Bahrain. It said I would be visiting my mother there, but it’s not
true, she is not there. I had to memorize the data given to me by my agent
before travelling.”
25
Interview with an official of the Embassy of the Philippines, Jordan, 14 Nov. 2011.
26
In the Philippines, Rule III, section 6 of the amended Migrant Workers Act, 2010,
states that “in pursuit of the national interest of when public welfare so requires, the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Governing Body, after
consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DPA), may, at any time, terminate
or impose a ban on the deployment of migrant workers. The POEA Governing Body
may, after consultation with the DFA, grant exceptions to the ban or life the ban.”
27
Interview with an official from the Embassy of the Philippines, Lebanon, 1 Nov. 2011.
28
For example: “The Embassy of the Philippines recognizes that recruitment agencies
in the Philippines are corrupt because they have bypassed the ban and continue to
send migrant domestic workers to Lebanon for a cost of between US$ 3,000 and US$
5,000”: G. Shahinian, Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery:
Mission to Lebanon, A/HRC/21/41/Add. 1 (New York, UN Human Rights Council, 4
July 2012, p. 9).
29
Interview with an owner of a PEA, Lebanon, 15 Dec. 2011.
30
Email correspondence with an official from Winrock International, Bangladesh,
30 Sep. 2012.
49