Migrant Worker Heroes
by Shay Cullen ssc

A tribute from a Columban priest based in the Philippines.

The seven million Filipino migrant workers that sacrifice simple love and joy of their families just to work abroad in difficult, hardworking, low paid jobs are the heroes of the Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo once told a news conference that they are "our greatest export...the backbone of the new global workforce". They send back officially about 10 billion dollars every year and another estimated four billion is sent back through friends to avoid the pilfering of corrupt government and bank officials.

The Philippines government survives on their earnings. Yet, when the bombing began in Lebanon the billons of pesos in the overseas workers assistance fund that the Philippine government took off the workers in departure and placement fees was no where to be found to help evacuate them. Governments of developed countries have to cope with the influx of illegal migrants by the thousands. Some are compassionate and kind others harsh and cruel. One Australian politician concerned for the migrants criticised the iron fisted anti-migration policy of his country and said Jesus and the holy family would be turned away if they arrived in Australia today.

According to Philippines government statistics, every year about 700,000 Filipinos, most of them women, leave for to work in 181 nations around the globe. There are 2.5 million Filipinos working in the United States but most overseas workers are now employed in the thriving economies of Asia while sadly the Philippines’ economy is slack. Taxation of the poor and insignificant taxation of the rich means little is spent on education, job creation and social services - an IMF formula for poverty creation.

The Philippines wealth is scoped up by greedy politicians and their corrupt corporations and smuggled abroad. Without hope this system will ever change, Filipinos educate themselves, develop skills and seek a decent wage abroad.

The unskilled go too. Huge numbers of them and children as young a 12 are exported out of Mindanao in the Southern Philippines and other poor provinces. Many become victims of human trafficking and are sold into slavery as domestic helpers, caregivers and factory workers and sold as young teenage brides to old men. They are threatened with imprisonment for unpayable debts created by traffickers and gang masters. Some are forced or tricked into prostitution.

Last August, Columban Father Donal Bennett who worked for 39 years in the Philippines and now based in Northern Ireland, reported how he was called one night by a group of near hysterical Filipino women contract workers that were being attacked by a group of migrant male workers from Eastern Europe. The knife wielding men threatened them and would have raped them had not Fr Bennett called for help. The five men were arrested. Their recruiter gang master spirited them away the next day to hire them out elsewhere.

Fr Bobby Gilmore, a Columban father who worked for many years in the Philippines and in England, founded the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland. He and Siobhan O’Donoghue have helped many migrants in Ireland who have been cheated, exploited, alienated and abused.

We all have to recognise that migrant workers make invaluable contributions to the economies of receiving nations. They must be treated with respect and dignity .They are not expendable throwaway parts to be