According to Migrante-Netherlands, Marikit Saturay was not allowed to talk to her lawyers and her relatives. A uniformed agent was also assigned to guard her during the entire detention period.
A migrant rights advocacy group has called on the Philippine government to provide due assistance to at least one million Filipinos facing threats of massive layoffs due to Saudization.
Overseas Filipino workers and their families only saw broken campaign promises in the last five years of the Duterte presidency.
As migrant issues were becoming more disheartening and tragic, I would often find myself headed to the airport where families were anxiously waiting for their loved ones coming home in caskets, to migrant shelters where abused and injured domestic workers are recovering from their traumatic and near-death experiences, or to the family house of an overseas Filipino worker executed in the Middle East.
“The widespread corruption in the government is the reason why OFWs are strongly against the planned mandatory PhilHealth and premium rate hike. OFWs cannot entrust the government that their hard-earned money will benefit their families and the rest of the Filipino people.”
Filipino migrant leaders in the United Kingdom, Canada, and US revealed that undocumented workers in those countries are the hardest hit with the lack of social protection amid the dreaded pandemic.
Three years later, after the bittersweet circus of Mary Jane’s case, she remains in jail in Indonesia, unsure of the final verdict in a crime she insists she didn’t commit.
“Overseas Filipinos continue to leave the Philippines under the labour export policy, driven by many social and political problems, such as poverty, lack of jobs, landlessness, the lack of accessible health care and other social benefits.”
“Migrants are facing uncertainty that is why it is imperative for them to organize themselves not just to protect their rights and welfare but also to understand and link their issues to the socio-economic problems of Philippine society.”
“As much as you, migrant workers all around the world are dreaming of coming back home with your families, we share with you our dreams, for our right to education, right to self-determination, a democratic government, and a just society.”
“The government’s failure in the early stages of the trial to provide Pawa with a lawyer made an unfavorable verdict possible.”