Sold into Syrian servitude, Filipina workers tell of abuse, rape and imprisonment

As Tawaging, 33, was being pushed to Dubai’s airport sure for Damascus, she protested one final time — and was slapped throughout the face. “They got angry with me and said, ‘if you don’t go, we’ll kill you,’ ” she stated in an interview, recounting the ordeal in 2019. Today, she stays trapped in Syria.

Dozens of Filipina ladies who had been recruited to work within the United Arab Emirates have been trafficked to Syria to work as maids, at instances subjected to bodily and sexual assaults by their employers and denied the salaries they had been promised, in keeping with interviews performed with 17 of these ladies over Facebook Messenger.

The Filipinas are sometimes imprisoned of their employers’ houses, and those that’ve escaped have fled to the Philippine Embassy in Damascus, the place some of them say that about 35 ladies are actually in search of shelter, unable to return dwelling.

“My employer slapped me and put my head into the wall. I escaped because he did not give me a salary for nine months,” stated Flordeliza Arejola, 32, who has been in Syria since 2018. “I waited until he was asleep and climbed over the wall. I had some money for a taxi [to the embassy].”

Tens of hundreds of thousands of worldwide migrants stay in Persian Gulf nations just like the UAE, many employed in sectors reminiscent of building and hospitality or as home workers. Their low cost labor sustains the economies of the Arab area, whereas their remittances are sometimes very important to supporting households again dwelling.

Syria, after almost a decade of civil conflict, is a far much less fascinating vacation spot for migrant workers, however prosperous Syrian households are ready to pay 1000’s of {dollars} to acquire a maid. This has fueled demand for feminine migrants trafficked in opposition to their will.

When requested concerning the trafficking of Filipinas to Syria, Paul Raymund Cortes, the Philippines’ consul normal in Dubai stated, “Of course we are very concerned about their plight.” He stated migrant workers ought to coordinate their abroad employment with Philippine authorities companies and search their assist in the event that they “are being lured to work outside the UAE.”

The Filipina ladies stated in interviews that they arrived within the Middle East on 30-day vacationer visas for the UAE, anticipating it to be their ultimate vacation spot. But the recruitment companies saved them locked up till the visas expired, making employment within the UAE not doable.

“The accommodation was dirty. There were more than 20 women in my room, and we slept on the floor,” Arejola stated. “Our phones were confiscated.”

While they had been being held, the ladies had been advised repeatedly by company workers that Syria is a good place to stay, that the civil conflict is over, and that they’d command excessive salaries and have one trip day per week. At the identical time, the ladies stated they had been typically bodily abused and threatened, particularly in the event that they objected to going to Syria.

Six of the interviewed ladies recognized two UAE employment companies as having performed a job within the trafficking. The Washington Post has not independently corroborated the claims, and the companies didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.

Research for this story started after a reporter noticed a Facebook video by which greater than 15 Filipinas contained in the Damascus embassy appealed for assist, and particular person ladies had been then recognized through Facebook and contacted for interviews.

After being held within the UAE, the ladies had been placed on flights to Damascus in teams of two or three. When they arrived, the ladies stated they had been held in communal lodging owned by native brokers till they had been positioned in a family and had been compelled to line up for potential prospects.

“I felt like a prostitute because we all stand in a line, and the employers choose who they want,” stated one girl, a 48-year outdated grandmother who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of she felt ashamed.

The promoting value was usually between $8,000 and $10,000, in keeping with a number of of the ladies, who stated their employers advised them how a lot they had been bought for. The ladies who weren’t shortly offered had been subjected to growing violence by the Syrian brokers.

“I was told to be good, so I won’t get raped and hurt. I stayed quiet and just said yes,” stated Joymalyn Dy, 26. The company boss “wanted to sleep beside me and touch me. Luckily, the next day, my employer took me.”

Once behind the closed doorways of their new houses, the ladies stated they had been subjected to bodily and sexual assaults by their employers. Geraldine Pahigon, 30, stated she was repeatedly assaulted by her employer. “I was slapped, kicked and bitten many times,” she stated. “I endured this for four months.”

She additionally stated she was by no means paid her for her work, echoing a criticism by different ladies who stated the salaries they had been promised by the UAE employment companies — about $500 a month — didn’t materialize.

Another girl who was dropped at Syria a 12 months in the past described 18-hour workdays beginning at 5 a.m. with no days off. She stated her employer is a member of a outstanding Syrian household and lives in a house with guards on the entrance gate.

“I’m afraid to escape,” stated the 32-year-old girl, whose identify is being withheld for her security. “I want to go home, but I don’t how I will get there.”

Four of the ladies recognized the dealer company in Damascus that offered them as Nobalaa Alsham.

Contacted by WhatsApp, a lawyer for that firm, Ramdan Mohammad, stated the ladies’s accounts had been “absolutely incorrect.” He stated the ladies “consent to come to work in Syria and that is [confirmed] by video with their voice and pictures by the sending office before they travel, and we do our part to secure sponsors, homes and people who treat them very well and humanely.” He stated, “We check in on them and that they receive their full wages periodically and ask about their communication with their families via the Internet.”

Mohammad added that the company helps any workers who increase issues, and there have been no complaints just like these made by the ladies interviewed by The Post.

Lailanis Abduljaber stated she was 12 years outdated when she was trafficked three years in the past.

“While I walked home from school, I was thinking about ways to escape the struggle of poverty, and of girls that went abroad and have a good life, and their relatives could build their own house,” she says. “I felt sorry for my family, so I wanted to help them.”

Lailanis, from Cotabato City within the southern Philippines, discovered a recruitment company that stated it might organize a passport for her with a falsified age and place her in a job in Dubai. Instead, she was taken to Syria.

She stated she initially labored laborious for her employer in Damascus, who knew she was 12. But when Lailanis acquired information after a number of months that her brother again dwelling had died, she was overwhelmed by grief and her work suffered.

As punishment, she stated, her employer slapped her and denied her meals. When she begged to be allowed to go dwelling to her household, he dropped her off on the Philippine Embassy, anticipating it might fly her again. It didn’t. Now 15 years outdated, she stated she has been residing on the embassy for the previous 20 months.

Lailanis doesn’t know when she’s going to get to go dwelling, and embassy workers have requested her if she’d like to return to work as an alternative.

“It is like being a prisoner. I want to go home,” she says. “I miss my mom and dad.”

As quickly as a chance arose, many of the ladies selected to flee their employers’ houses and flee to the Philippine Embassy. But they weren’t greeted with the sanctuary that they had hoped for.

Some of the embassy workers are strict, the ladies stated. A typical punishment for minor offenses — reminiscent of sneaking some additional meals from the kitchen — is the denial of breakfast for 2 weeks. The dormitory-style rooms are chilly within the winter, and the ladies are locked inside every night time.

To forestall them from complaining to their households concerning the residing situations on the embassy, their telephones had been confiscated. “For almost five months we couldn’t communicate with our families because our phones were taken by the ambassador,” stated the 48-year-old Filipina. “It’s like being in prison.”

In response to a request for remark, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs stated it had launched an “investigation into allegations of poor treatment while under temporary shelter and recommend the necessary actions accordingly.” The division stated it “has actively taken measures to ensure the safety and well-being of Filipino victims of trafficking” in Syria and has been making an attempt to safe exit visas for the ladies and pay any excellent charges and fines imposed by the Syrian authorities. Since December, when the division was contacted for remark, Philippine officers stated they’ve begun repatriating some of the ladies.

Of the 35 feminine trafficking victims who had been staying on the embassy in December, some stated that they had been caught there for so long as two years as a result of they had been unable to acquire Syrian exit visas and cash for flights dwelling.

Several ladies reported being pressured by embassy workers to return to the Syrian households they’ve escaped from.

“I want to die,” stated Juvie Balondo, 27, who has been staying on the embassy for a 12 months. “We are all so stressed.”

Tawaging, who recalled being bundled off to Damascus two years in the past, has been marooned within the embassy after fleeing her employer early final 12 months. “I ran away because my employer tried to rape me, and it made me too nervous [to stay],” she stated.

Now, she spends most of her days in mattress with little to occupy her. For greater than a 12 months, she stated, she has been unable to talk together with her youngsters within the Philippines, ages 9 and 10, as a result of the household has no Internet service. A widowed mom, Tawaging had come to the UAE for work to supply a future for her youngsters.

“I really miss them,” she stated. “We are still hoping and waiting to hear when we can go home.”