MANILA, Philippines — Six Filipino trafficking victims sheltered by the Philippine Embassy in Damascus after fleeing abusive employers have departed Syria and are expected to arrive in Manila on Saturday afternoon, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
All of the repatriates currently bound for the Philippines were women "illegally hired to work in Syria from being tourists in Dubai," DFA said in a press release.
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They are also the "first batch of repatriates among the 38 Filipinas currently housed at the Philippine Embassy shelter in Damascus," the agency said. "They are all undocumented workers in Syria who ran away from their employers due to harsh working conditions."
Along with the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking led by the Department of Justice, DFA said it assisted the women "in the filing of criminal complaints against human traffickers who victimized them in their home provinces, in Dubai and in Syria."
The department added that it "lobbied hard with the Syrian authorities and employers to secure exit clearances for the repatriates."
The women departed Syria on Thursday night and are expected to arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Saturday afternoon after a layover in the United Arab Emirates, per the DFA.
Washington Post on January 25 reported that dozens of Filipino women recruited to work in the United Arab Emirates were trafficked to Syria to work as domestic workers without their consent. The report details that the migrant workers were at times denied pay and suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their employers.
Also per the story, many women who escaped from their employers' homes fled to the Philippine Embassy in Damascus but "were not greeted with the sanctuary they had hoped for." It recounted that victims described embassy personnel as strict, denying them breakfast for two weeks as a punishment for minor offenses, such as sneaking extra food from the kitchen.
In response, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on January 26 said he would repatriate all the distressed workers seeking shelter at the Philippine Embassy in Damascus. He also ordered the DFA to open a probe on the embassy personnel for "poor treatment" of the victims who were under their care.
"The Department’s augmentation team is likewise departing Manila next week to reinforce its current measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of Filipino victims of trafficking currently staying in the Embassy’s shelter," DFA said Saturday. "The augmentation team shall render humanitarian assistance and facilitate the repatriation of all the remaining distressed Filipino wards in the Embassy shelter and any other distressed Filipino national in Syria."
In response to the same Washington Post story, Sen. Risa Hontiveros this week called for a Senate inquiry into the human trafficking of Filipino women amid the pandemic.