Flor incident
In March 1991, Flor, a Filipino maid, was arrested by the Singapore government for murder and charged with murdering her employer's 4-year-old son and another Filipino maid, Tilamanka.
The news caused an uproar in the Philippines, and people firmly believed that Flor was framed by her employer, so they organized speeches, demonstrations and other activities in support of Flor, hoping to return her justice.
Then-Philippine President Ramos sent a letter to Singaporean President Ong Teng Cheong to intercede. The Catholic Church of the Philippines also tried to contact the Catholic Emperor on the matter to seek judicial intervention.
But all the rescue was to no avail, and Flor was executed four years later, on March 17, 1995.
The incident caused public outrage in the Philippines.
Privately, people began to boycott Singaporean goods, burn the country's flag, and hold a series of demonstrations to vent their dissatisfaction with the Singapore government.
Officially, the president's wife personally welcomed Flor's coffin back to China and held a grand funeral in the name of a hero, attended by as many as 100,000 people.
At the same time, relations between the Philippines and Singapore have also reached a freezing point, almost to the point of breaking off diplomatic relations. The incident even alarmed the United Nations, which came forward to mediate, hoping that the Philippines and Singapore would remain calm and restrained.
Regardless of whether Flor was wronged in this case, we can make an international uproar in this ordinary judicial case, which can also show the importance attached to the Filipino maid group in the Philippines.
The situation of Filipino maids in the country
If we were to give our first impression of the Philippines, maybe 9 out of 10 people would blurt out: "Filipino maid!" ”
Indeed, "Filipino maids" have become a national calling card of the Philippines. As the largest labor exporter in Asia, the Philippines has a wide range of labor export businesses all over the world, the vast majority of whom are Filipino maids.
These Filipino maids have relieved the employment pressure caused by the economic slowdown for the Philippine government, earned a huge amount of foreign exchange, and become the economic pillars of their respective families.
For this reason, almost every Philippine president receives representatives of Filipino maids and rolls out the red carpet for Filipino maids to go home every Christmas. Filipino maids are heroes in the eyes of the Filipino people.
The situation of Filipino maids abroad
As the No.1 in the global housekeeping industry, "Filipino maids" are naturally welcomed by employers around the world.
According to statistics, in Hong Kong alone, as of 2019, the number of local Filipino domestic servants was nearly 200,000, accounting for 50% of the Hong Kong housekeeping market; In Singapore, there is an average of 1 Filipino maid for every 5 households, and the total number of Filipino maids is about 240,000.
The reason why Filipino maids are so popular is related to the domestic environment of the Philippines and their own efforts.
First of all, home economics education in the Philippines is very developed, and almost all secondary schools and universities offer home economics courses. Most of the Filipino maids are highly educated and have no gap in knowledge with employers in developed countries.
Second, the Philippines has a long colonial history, English is widely spoken and Catholic. In terms of cultural exchange, it has an advantage over Indonesia and Malaysia, which are also Southeast Asian labor exporters.
Third, Filipino maids are meticulous in their work, gentle and obedient to employers, and generally have a strong sense of responsibility.
Filipino maids are deeply influenced by Eastern and Western cultures, and are familiar with Western culture and have the gentle intellect of the East. This kind of comprehensive domestic talent is naturally more and more loved by employers around the world.
Everything is one and the same. Even though Filipino maids enjoy national praise with salaries that are the envy of relatives at home, their situation abroad is far less glamorous and sometimes very bad than at home.
Take Hong Kong, a major inflow of Filipino maids.
Some Hong Kong employers have a strong sense of inferiority and do not allow Filipino maids to eat at the same table as their masters, and Filipino maids can only eat the leftovers of their masters. Some Filipino maids do not have a special room and can only sleep in the bathroom.
Britain is no better.
In an interview with the BBC, a Filipino maid named Mitos said he had been enslaved for three years and had not escaped until a few months earlier. Her employer only gave her two hours off a day and worked non-stop the rest of the time. When the employer leaves, she is locked in the house and is not allowed to go outside.
Mitos's case is not unique, Maria's situation is even worse.
Like many Filipino maids who wanted to escape poverty, Maria left her hometown to work as a Filipino maid in Paris. What she never expected was that the outside world was not as beautiful as she imagined.
Her passport was confiscated the day she arrived at her employer's house, and what awaited her was a day of 18 hours of hard work and verbal abuse. As for confinement, confinement is even more commonplace.
This kind of abuse made Mary unbearable, so much so that after being rescued, Maria faced the camera and asked: "I am so human, why should I suffer such a thing?" ”
If it were not for the media exposure, it would be difficult for us as Chinese people to imagine that in modern civilized society, the well-known Filipino maids would be exploited, bullied and even violated like slaves.
Even so, these are not the most shocking. The plight of some Filipino maids in Middle Eastern countries is even worse.
Saudi Arabia seems to be worse.
In 2019, Filipino maid Acosta Baruello forgot to take the furniture back to her home, causing the furniture to fade due to sun exposure. The incident angered the Saudi employer, who tied her hands and feet to a tree in her garden to experience the feeling of furniture being faded by the sun.
In addition, sexual assault and abuse are also common for Filipino maids overseas.
In 2017 alone, there were 1,549 cases of abuse of Filipino domestic servants overseas, of which 243 suffered serious sexual abuse.
In 2018, in South Korea, there was an incident of a wife helping her husband and raping a Filipino maid for a long time.
In 2019, in Kuwait, a Filipino maid was found to have died tragically, his body had traces of whipping, and a cucumber was maliciously stuffed into his body.
In 2022, the Philippine government conducted a survey on the living conditions of overseas maids, and found that a high proportion of maids were not respected overseas and were in a difficult situation. In some Asian and European countries, Filipino maids are treated unfairly.
It can be seen that it is a common phenomenon for Filipino maids to be abused overseas.
The reason why Filipino maids are bullied
On the one hand, Filipino maids are favored by employers overseas, and on the other hand, incidents of Filipino maids being abused by employers occur from time to time. So, what exactly is the reason for this seemingly paradoxical situation?
The reasons can be manifold.
From their own point of view, they have been taught to be gentle and submissive since childhood, it is difficult for them to have the courage to refuse the unreasonable demands of their employers, nor do they have the ability to protect their legitimate rights and interests, and the poor economic situation in the Philippines also makes Filipino maids need this job, even if they are unfairly treated, they can only grit their teeth.
From the perspective of employers, many employers have a backward consciousness, with a strong concept of "hierarchy of dignity and inferiority", and do not realize that Filipino maids have an equal employment relationship with them, and arbitrarily abuse them.
Especially in the eyes of some Middle Eastern tycoons, the status of Filipino maids is no different from that of slaves, and they should be accessories of the master, and they must fully meet the needs of the master. Among them, it includes the sexual needs of the owner.
From the perspective of the country where the Filipino maid's labor service is located, there are many legal loopholes and gaps in the management of Filipino maids, resulting in the difficulty of legally protecting Filipino maids in the event of an accident.
Even with protection, some authorities in the place of the incident are suspected of harboring their employers. Unless there are cases serious enough to cause death, most cases of minor abuse will be hidden.
As far as the Philippine government is concerned, because Filipino maids are all over the world, and the Philippine government has not signed bilateral agreements with all countries to protect labor, it is impossible to protect the due rights of all overseas Filipino domestic helpers.
The Philippine government's initiatives to protect Filipino maids
In recent years, the Philippine government has gradually paid attention to the situation of Filipino maids overseas and has begun to take various measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of its nationals overseas.
In terms of legislation, the Philippine government has established a special Philippine Labor Law and the Overseas Workers and Overseas Filipino Act to ensure that overseas workers, including Filipino maids, are protected by law.
In China, training providers must conduct training for Filipino maids under the supervision of the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment, and helpers can only be allowed to leave the Philippines if they obtain an OEC issued by the Overseas Employment Administration.
Overseas, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) requires foreign employers and labor agencies to monitor and report on the status, status, or significant events of their workers in order to have first-hand information at all times.
Finally, if returning workers encounter difficulties, the Philippine government will provide them with a series of government assistance for reintegration, including skills training and livelihood assistance, so as to relieve the worries of Filipino maids.
The Philippine government has also come forward on many occasions to negotiate with other countries in an effort to protect the overseas rights and interests of Filipino maids. Even due to the unfair treatment of Filipino maids, the Philippine government has had diplomatic frictions with Singapore, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and many other countries.
The efforts of the Philippine Government to protect its workers had indeed paid off. For example, after a diplomatic dispute between the Philippines and Kuwait over the abuse and death of Filipino maids, the Philippines and Kuwait signed an agreement that Kuwait would amend laws and regulations to improve the living conditions of existing Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait.
But even so, in the face of a large number of Filipino maid groups, these efforts are a drop in the bucket. Most abuses that are not too egregious in nature may remain hidden underwater and unknown to the public. As long as there is a huge gap between the level of economic development in the Philippines and the labour-importing countries, as long as employers are not too excessive. As the breadwinner of the family, Filipino maids may only endure silently on a relatively considerable salary in China.
Filipino maids are not the worst
In fact, with the Philippine government's attention to the issue of Filipino maids in recent years, the suffering of this group of Filipino maids is not the worst. Migrant workers from impoverished areas such as Indonesia, Kenya, Bangladesh and Myanmar are fared much worse than Filipino maids.
In 2005, an Indonesian woman working as a maid in the United States complained of being sexually held by a Saudi employer for four years.
In 2016, Pion, a Myanmar woman, was tortured to death by her Singaporean employer and weighed only 24 kilograms, the weight of a 7-year-old girl.
In 2019, the remains of maid Nazma Begum were found in Saudi Arabia, where she was abused by her employer and died of an untreated illness.
In 2021, a Burmese woman was rescued after 13 years of unpaid labor after being held in captivity and enslavement by a Thai employer.
According to data released in 2019 by the Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program, a Bangladeshi migrant rights group, 61 percent of the 110 women they interviewed who returned that year claimed to have been physically abused and 14 percent had been sexually abused.
This happens a lot all over the world. Thousands of impoverished women from the Third World have come to foreign lands with dreams of changing their lives, but what awaits them is not the flowers they expect, but the abyss of despair.
epilogue
What's wrong with that?
If you want to analyze each of them, the weakness of the maids themselves, the low quality of the employers, the inadequacy of the relevant laws, the shielding of the relevant institutions in the country where the employers are located, the inaction of the government of the country to which the maids belong... May all be the cause of this worldwide tragedy.
Fundamentally speaking, although the historical traditions, ideological cognition, cultural customs, and behavioral habits of various peoples in the world are very different, which will lead to many differences and disputes, the sense of belonging and empathy for the concept of "person" itself should need to converge.
If this premise is lost, human civilization as a whole will not have great development, let alone the possibility of forming a community with a shared future for mankind.
Sexual exploitation, fertility tools, motherhood, how miserable are Filipino maids who are world-renowned?
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