DMW urged to strengthen support for pregnant OFWs in distress, victims of human trafficking

The newly-established Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) should put in place support mechanisms for Filipino migrant workers, especially those who are pregnant and in distress.

Hontiveros noted that women overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are often targets of “extensive violence.”

“There is an increase of employment of female migrant workers, particularly in gender-based occupations and sectors such as domestic work, entertainment, garments industry, and electronic assembly,” Hontiveros said.

“We need stronger mechanisms to help protect them throughout the whole process, mula sa recruitment hanggang deployment at repatriation,” added the chair of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.

In the first budget hearing of the newly-established government agency, the senator cited the harrowing cases of Filipina domestic workers who were forced by their recruitment agencies to undergo abortion after their pregnancies were revealed.

“I'm just hoping and confident that the DMW will look into the more detailed circumstances nito para maproteksyunan ang ating mga kababayan laban sa ganyang mga (so we can protect our people against) forced abortion,” she stated.

In the 18th Congress, the lawmaker exposed several cases of forced abortion and human trafficking among women OFWs and even helped an illegally trafficked female OFW who was forced by her agency to terminate her pregnancy before heading to war-torn Syria.

Another female domestic worker in Saudi Arabia also experienced the same fate, the senator noted.

She said she would like to the DMW to provide the Senate details on how equipped are the OFW shelters abroad in caring for pregnant OFWs in distress and if they can provide protective healthcare for those who are pregnant.

Hontiveros also said the DMW should provide lawmakers updates regarding the welfare of those who were forced to undergo abortion and if they can still file legal cases against their recruitment agency and or employer.

But at the same time, she said she welcomes the DMW's commitment to set up a special hotline that pregnant OFWs who are at a loss on what to do can call and seek help from.

Hontiveros, likewise, expressed her support to increase the allocation of funds to the agency to provide better services to migrant workers, noting that the DMW might be working on a meager budget in 2023.

“Just for 2021, the remittances of our OFWs reached $34.8 billion, or P1.74 trillion. That's 20 percent of the total national government budget now being proposed under the current National Expenditure Program (NEP),”

“And yet, the new department that is supposed to take care of our fellow Filipinos has to make do with a much smaller recommended budget,” she said.