Filipino Killed in Dubai Road Accident

Photo credit: gulfnews.com

Two men died and a third was injured when their pick-up crashed into a tanker on Sunday morning.

Dubai Police said the accident happened on Business Bay Bridge towards Deira at about 8.45am, which caused a massive traffic jam.

Chief Traffic Prosecutor Salah Bu Farousha, Head of Dubai Traffic Public Prosecution (TPP), told Gulf News that the Pakistani driver of the tanker has been provisionally detained for reckless driving and causing two deaths.

“The 23-year-old Pakistani man was driving a water tanker. Suddenly he veered into another lane and rammed into a pick-up carrying refreshments. An Egyptian driver, in his 30s, who was driving a pick-up, could not avoid the water tanker due to the sudden swerving. Two passengers in the pick-up, a Filipino and an Indian, died instantly. The Egyptian who sustained minor injuries was taken to hospital for treatment,” said Bu Farousha.

The Pakistani driver is currently detained and will be questioned by traffic prosecutors today, according to TPP’s Head.

Continue reading at Gulf News

Filipina in Abu Dhabi Gets in Trouble for Getting Pregnant Sans Marriage Contract

A woman landed in trouble for having a marital relationship with her husband and getting pregnant, simply because she did not have a copy of the marriage contract.

The Filipino woman, a nanny identified as M.A., came to the UAE two years ago to work for a family in Abu Dhabi, but absconded in May last year when her employer held her salary for three months.

M.A. told Public Prosecution that she went to the Philippines Embassy in Abu Dhabi, who contacted her employer to solve the problem.

After getting\r residency visa cancelled by her employer, A.M. told embassy officials that she wanted to stay in the UAE and look for another job, and left to Dubai, where she stayed in an apartment in Hor Al Anz with her husband, P.V., who was a resident for three years. She told prosecutors that the couple got married five years ago in the Philippines.

Continue reading at Gulf News

Filipino Community in UAE Urged to Join Two Eco Events

Philippine Consul-General Benito Valeriano is encouraging all 101 community groups and organisations registered with the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai, to participate in two twin environmental activities spearheaded by the Lightform International Photographers Guild (LIPG) this October.

One of these is a clean-up drive from 7am to 11am at the Al Mamzar Beach in Dubai on Oct. 28 and the other, the “10th Environmental Awareness Photo Competition,” the winners of which will be announced on Nov. 4 at Arabian Centre-Mirdiff.

Dubai Municipality supports both activities.

Valeriano stated in his letter addressed to all Filipino community leaders in Dubai and the Northern Emirates: “I urge all Filipino organisations to send participants to this major activity in Dubai which is geared towards cleaning our environment for the benefit of future generations.”

Continue reading at Gulf Today

Emirati Gets 10 Years Jail Term for Kidnapping, Molesting Pinay

An Emirati man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Sunday by the Court of First Instance for kidnapping and molesting a woman cleaner. The verdict is open to appeal within 15 wdays.

According to prosecution records, the defendant, a 28-year-old jobless, kidnapped the Filipina cleaner after he lured her into his car posing as a CID officer (Criminal Investigation Department). The court also convicted the accused of charges of impersonating as a public officer and theft.

The Filipina cleaner, 26, who works at a hotel, told the investigating prosecutor that the incident happened in Umm Suqeim.

In her statement, she said that the local man stopped his vehicle as she was waiting at a bus stop in Jumeirah.

It was about 11am on November 30 last year. He stopped near her and said he worked for the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.

Continue reading at Khaleej Times

Pinoy Group in UAE Helps Pinoys with Legal Problems

Filipinos who find themselves on the wrong side of the law need not face their legal problems alone.

A group of 11 expatriates, mostly legal consultants and law graduates, have banded together to form Philippine Legal Advocates, or Plead.

The Filipinos provide free legal advice, and draft legal documents and written arguments to help their compatriots in court.

They intend to also offer practical legal education and training for Filipinos, and act as a link between the Philippine diplomatic missions in the UAE and the community.

“Ignorance of the law excuses no one,” said Ian Joseph Uy, 36, a legal consultant at Law Firm International in Dubai and one of the founding members of Plead.

“Many are unaware that one can be held liable for being a guarantor for a personal loan.

“Also, once someone has served a sentence for a bounced cheque, he or she could face a civil case by the bank to collect the owed amount.”

Continue reading at The National

Filipino Document Controller in Dubai Loses Dh12,000 to Hacker

Online hacking has claimed yet another victim with a Dubai resident losing her savings of Dh12,000 from her bank in a matter of minutes.

And she claims the bank did not act fast enough, which could have helped prevent the heist.
On August 20, at around 1.30pm, Kathryn Magadia, a 28-year-old Filipino document controller, received an SMS that a single transaction made on her bank account without her authorisation left her with just Dh5.

Within minutes she was on the phone with the bank’s call centre staff trying to stop the transaction, but it was too late. Magadia reported the matter to the police immediately.

She said Emirates NBD took three weeks to respond to her request for a certificate about the illegal transfer. She said police needed that document to open a case. Magadia fears the suspect, an African man who is also a customer with the same bank, may have already slipped out of the country.

Continue reading at Gulf News

Filipinos in UAE Want Support Affidavit Scrapped

Several groups under the umbrella of the Filipino Community in Dubai and the Northern Emirates have clamoured for the abolition of the affidavit of support and guarantee requirement imposed by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration Department (BID) for Dubai-bound Filipinos on visit visa, since July 2010.

These groups under the Filipino Community (FILCOM), which comprises over a hundred Filipino organisations in Dubai and other emirates like Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, have been circulating emails seeking signatures of Filipino expatriates in the UAE demanding for the abolition of the said BID requirement.

Their campaign is anchored on the allegations that the immigration officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila are not keen on checking the documents their departing loved ones are carrying with them.

The same email campaign also made allegations of ‘under the table’ and ‘escort’ systems going on at NAIA involving unspecified immigration officials who decide if they should or should not allow UAE-bound passengers to take their flights. “In many cases, passengers who have refused to engage in the ‘escort system’ and pay under the table, have been off-loaded,” they claimed.

Continue reading at Khaleej Times

Philippines and the UAE Have Joint Duty to Protect Workers

Labour relations between the UAE and the Philippines is one of supply and demand, as is the case for every country that sends its citizens to work overseas. For the Philippines, it is important to remember that workers, unable to find employment at home, keep local economies afloat with billions of dollars in remittances sent by around 10 million overseas Filipinos.

The former president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, started the overseas labour programme to the Gulf in the 1970s. Since then, every administration, including the present government under President Benigno Aquino, has continued its heavy reliance on exporting labour; more than a million Filipino workers are sent abroad yearly.

In the Philippines, the overseas labour market is deregulated, which has given birth to a lucrative labour export industry. The complications of the industry mean that it has gone beyond government control. The arrival of recruitment agencies that act as intermediaries has also corrupted the process.

There have been efforts to address these shortcomings. In 2007, the UAE and the Philippine governments signed a memorandum of understanding that was aimed at promoting healthy relations through a bilateral labour service cooperation. But this agreement failed to recognise the need for protections for overseas workers. Even today the rights and well-being of overseas workers, in this case Filipino but concerning many expatriate workers in the Gulf, remains in question.

Overseas Filipino workers in the UAE are mostly employed in the service sector in hotels and restaurants; other key sectors are domestic staff, medicine, IT and education.

Based on the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration records, in 2010 there were more than 200,000 Filipinos working in the UAE, in the Gulf second only to Saudi Arabia, which employs nearly 300,000. But there are probably hundreds of thousands more; Filipinos who jump from one job to another after running away from their employers.

Often this is due to labour malpractices, failure to pay salaries, unpaid overtime work, or sexual and physical abuse. Our labour advocacy office receives two to three abuse allegations every day.

It is worth noting that the UAE government recently published and distributed worker’s rights booklets translated into various languages. This was an attempt at explaining the rights and responsibilities of migrant workers as well as provide a guide to get legal redress in case of abuse, harassment or malpractice.

The Philippine government, meanwhile, has amended the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 prescribing policy to send workers only to countries where there are laws recognising the rights of overseas workers or guarantee programmes promoting their welfare. Every Philippine diplomatic post is required to submit its assessment and issue certifications in compliance with this law.

Continue reading at The National

Filipinos Feel Helpless Vs Offloading at NAIA

On May 10, 2011, Filipina nurse Marie shelled out 25,000 pesos (Dh2,174) to agents of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Ninoy Aquino International Airport so she could fly back to Dubai on a visit visa.

Money changed hands outside the airport and she was told to join a queue at a passport counter whose staff did not ask her any questions. A week before, she had been offloaded on the pretext of being a potential human trafficking victim, though Marie had already worked in a Dubai clinic for seven years before she quit her job and went home.

“I was just desperate to leave, because it’s a big mess when you are offloaded,” she said. “One of the people in my batch paid 37,000 pesos (Dh3,217)… the officer who stamped our passport hid his name tag.”

All passengers on visit visas from Manila to Dubai who boarded the Cathay Pacific flight at 6pm that day via Hong Kong paid grease money, she said.

Continue reading at Gulf News

UAE, Kuwait, Qatar Face Ban on Filipino Maids

Filipino maids At Kuwait Airport. Photo credit: Arab Times

The Philippines government could soon issue a ban on the deployment of domestic workers to three Gulf countries because it says it cannot guarantee their protection.

According to media reports from Manila on Friday, the deployment of household service workers (HSW) to Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar could grind to a halt after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) recommended a ban.

Filipino maids are currently subject to a separate ban from Saudi Arabia after the kingdom said it was seeking new sources for foreign workers.

The Department of Labour and Employment said it had made the recommendation after the three countries failed to comply with Republic Act 10022 or the Amended Migrant and Overseas Filipino Workers Act of 1995, Manila newspapers reported.

Continue reading at Arabian Business

PH Gov’t Offices in Dubai Now in One Location

Philippine government offices in Dubai will now be located in one compound beginning August 28.

In a statement sent to ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau, Philippine Labor Attaché to the United Arab Emirates Amilbahar Amilasan said the offices of the Philippine Consulate General (PCG), the Philippine Overseas Labor Office-Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (POLO-OWWA) and other government agencies like the Department of Trade and Industry, PAG-IBIG and the Social Security System (SSS) will be housed in one compound.

“It will be a ‘one-stop shop’ for our kababayans in Dubai and the Northern Emirates,” Amilasan said.

Currently, the POLO-OWWA is located at Villa #27 in Abu Hail, Dubai while the PCG is housed at Villa #48, 35 Beirut St. in Al Ghusais 3.

Both offices will be located in a single compound at Community 234, Al Ghusais 3, Dubai starting Sunday.

Filipinos in the UAE have long been complaining about the distant locations of the two vital Philippine government offices.

Continue reading at ABS-CBN News

Jailed Mothers and Babies in Dubai Ask For Support

A woman who gave birth to her son while she was under detention this year says the Philippine government should do more to help prisoners in her situation.

Jackie Lou Javate Bacani, 31, a cashier in Dubai, was detained at Muraqqabat police station for more than seven months on drug-related charges.

She delivered a boy at Al Baraha Hospital on March 16 and was returned to detention the next day.

Mrs Bacani said she faced a daily struggle to look after her baby.

“My baby developed an eye infection,” she said. “I really had a hard time taking care of him.”

Mrs Bacani was in detention with about 15 other women, mostly Filipina, who were allowed to keep their infants while awaiting trial or sentencing.

“I really feel bad for them,” Mrs Bacani said. “When I was released there were at least four Filipinas who remained in jail with their babies.”

She had been held with Cresilda Empleo, 25, at Muraqqabat since November 10 when they were arrested at Hamarain Mall after a third Filipina, Rhodora Guisinga, 36, was found with tramadol, an opiate-based painkiller.

Continue reading at The National