Dubai: Domestic workers, employers and advocates of migrant workers’ rights have hailed the recent agreement by the UAE and Philippines on household service workers (HSWs) and called it a landmark pact in ensuring workers’ welfare.
The UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) and Philippine Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) announced on Tuesday the official deployment of domestic workers from the Philippines to the UAE — which stopped in 2014 — will resume next month.
Lyne Catedrilla
Lyne Catedrilla, a Filipino nanny who has been working in Dubai for 15 years, said the UAE-Philippines Memorandum of Understanding on Labour Cooperation with Annex Protocol on Domestic Workers would provide protection to her kababayans (compatriots) working in the UAE. She told Gulf News: “I’m grateful I have never experienced any maltreatment from my previous and current employers but I have personally seen and rescued distressed kababayans who were grievously maltreated. There was one incident when I had to use my own money to help save a Filipina maid who was abandoned by a private recruitment agency. She was maltreated, no one helped her; so, my madam and I went to fetch her and bring her to the Philippine consulate. I have also encountered other Filipinas who fell prey to illegal recruiters.”