OFW Party List Representative Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino delivered a privilege speech Monday in the House of Representatives on the plight of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in South Korea and Hong Kong.
Last June 9-13, 2023, Rep. Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino travelled to South Korea to join the Pistang Pinoy sa Korea 2023 and meet with OFWs in a town hall meeting. During the meeting, various challenges by OFWs in South Korea were discussed including abuses and exploitation, illegal recruitment and human trafficking, contract switching, investment scams, and violations of labor standards, particularly among seasonal workers.
Among the travails of OFWs in South Korea are the nefarious activities committed by fellow Filipinos against them.
There are complaints against Philippine recruitment agencies, which facilitate the hiring of OFWs, mainly artists, entertainers and cultural workers, who then fall victims to prostitution and human trafficking. There are also charges of complicity of some Filipinos in the commission of massive investment scams in South Korea victimizing our OFWs. The scheme has, to date, reportedly netted Php 150 million of blood money from our OFWs in South Korea.
OFWs also complained against the alleged extortion activities of corrupt personnel of the Bureau of Immigration who prevent OFWs from departing the country, unless for a price. This time, they victimize previously undocumented OFWs returning to South Korea with a valid visa after having been granted amnesty by the South Korean government.
The party list lawmaker also shared the exploitation and contract violations against Filipino seasonal workers under the Seasonal Workers Program (SWP).
The SWP aims to address the acute manpower shortage in the agriculture and fishery sectors in South Korea. Foreign seasonal workers are allowed to work in fruit, vegetable and fishing farms for 3 to 5 months, provided they are under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between local government units.
However, since the program stems mainly from LGU- to-LGU agreements, the implementation system does not go through the stringent screening of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW). Accordingly, there have been reports of increasing contract violations and exploitations against OFWs deployed through SWP.
These problems have been initially discussed by Rep. Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino with the leadership of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for appropriate and immediate actions.
“We have around 59,000 OFWs in South Korea and although they are doing relatively better than our kababayans in other host countries and although they are well take care of by our Philippine Embassy and Migrant Workers’ Office in South Korea, they still contend with various challenges. Bukod sa hirap sa pag-adjust sa Korean culture, andoon din ang ibang paghihirap na dulot pa mismo ng kalokohan ng kapwa kababayan.” Pero bilib ako sa tibay ng loob ng ating mga kababayan. Ika nga nila, ‘fighting’ lang!, said ” Magsino.
During the privilege speech, Rep. Magsino also shared highlights of her official visit to Hong Kong last June 18–19, 2023, where she met with the Philippine Consulate General to discuss the working conditions of over 200,000 OFWs in the Special Administrative Region. OFWs in Hong Kong, mainly household service workers, accounted for USD 732.36 million in remittances in 2022.
Among the pressing issues affecting OFWs in Hong Kong are contract termination regulations and the rampant pawning of Philippine passports by unscrupulous individuals.
“Recognizing that each host country presents its own challenges, we need to pursue appropriate and country-specific approaches rather than applying blanket solutions to the problems of our OFWs employed abroad. And we can only propose appropriate solutions if we hear firsthand their sentiments and see for ourselves how they are faring in their host countries. Despite the advantages of technology in bridging distance, personally visiting our OFWs as they are immersed in their communities abroad still provides better perspective,” Magsino said.
