Gordon asks help for Pinoys in Kazakhstan

Sen. Richard Gordon has asked the help of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to ensure the safety and repatriation of hundreds of Filipino workers caught in the middle of riots in Kazakhstan.

Last Wednesday, nearly 100 Filipinos arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport after fleeing clashes between local Kazakh and Turkish workers at a plant run by Bechtel International in Tengiz town.

The Filipinos, who were also Bechtel employees, fled to avoid being targeted. They were the second batch of Filipinos to leave the former Soviet republic.

Gordon, who chairs the Philippine National Red Cross, has asked Bechtel to shoulder the Filipinos’ plane fares. The returning Filipinos thanked Gordon and recounted to them their harrowing ordeal.

"We just had to bring them home lest they suffer the same fate as the Turkish workers who were massacred in that country," Gordon said. "One thing is for sure. Our OFWs were traumatized by the on-and-off riots between Turkish and Kazakh workers as they constantly feared being targeted also."

At the height of the conflict, the Filipinos in Kazakhstan and their relatives in the Philippines contacted Gordon for help.

Gordon, who was in Geneva, Switzerland, for a Red Cross board meeting at that time, immediately tapped his contacts and asked for help.

"In line with the mission of the Red Cross to alleviate human suffering and protect life, it was my duty to help our OFWs in Kazakhstan and ensure their safe return to our country," he said.

Ricardo Ramos, who spoke on behalf of the Filipinos who returned from Kazakhstan last Nov. 9, told Gordon that they were also subjected to threats and intimidation and that Bechtel failed to heighten security measures at its Tengiz plant.

He said many Filipinos still in Kazakhstan want to return home despite Bechtel’s move to increase their salaries by 50 US cents per hour and slashing their work hours from 72 hours to 66 per week.