Pinoys building US Embassy in Iraq deny being taken to Baghdad without consent

MANILA (AP) - Filipinos working for a Kuwaiti contractor building the U.S. Embassy in Iraq have denied allegations brought before the U.S. Congress that they were taken to Baghdad without their knowledge, a Filipino official said Friday.

The Kuwait-based First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co. earlier this month denied allegations by two former employees that 51 Filipinos were recruited to work in Dubai but were taken to Baghdad instead without their consent, and that they were mistreated.

Roy Cimatu, the Philippines' special envoy to the Middle East, told ABS-CBN television that he had just visited Iraq, where he confirmed that only 11 Filipinos were on the flight in question.

"We were able to interview the Filipinos who were on the plane," he said from Dubai. "All of them were unanimous that they knew they were going to Iraq, that it's voluntary on their part."

Cimatu said four of the 11 Filipinos still work for First Kuwaiti, four have moved to different companies in Iraq, while three others have returned to the Philippines.

The Philippines has banned its citizens from working in Iraq since July 2004, but up to 7,000 Filipinos remain there. Cimatu said he has met with Philippine diplomats in the Middle East to find ways to implement the ban more strictly.

He said he has found that Filipinos are able to enter Iraq using tampered passports or by using a new road that links Kuwait to Iraq without passing through border immigration.

But despite the stream of workers into Iraq, others are choosing to go home. Some 100 Filipinos were on their way home when he left Baghdad Thursday, Cimatu added.

Two former employees of First Kuwaiti, John Owens and Rory J. Mayberry, testified before the U.S. Congress last month. Owens, a general foreman, said foreign workers were packed in trailers, lacked shoes and gloves, and were required to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

Mayberry, a medical technician, said 51 Filipinos were on his flight to Baghdad but that all their tickets _ and his own _ said they were going to Dubai.

Mayberry said a First Kuwaiti manager told him not to tell the Filipinos they were being taken to Baghdad. "They had no idea they were being sent to do construction work on the U.S. Embassy," Mayberry said. "I believe these men were kidnapped."