Filipino Domestic Workers Association Interview

words— Kay Stephens art— Katrina Bautista

Filipino Domestic Workers Association Interview

The Filipino Domestic Workers Association (FDWA) is an organisation founded in 2012, composed of Filipino women working as domestic workers in the UK. I spoke with Phoebe – chairperson of the FDWA – about the organisation and her own experience as a migrant domestic worker. Below is an edited version of our conversation.

Kay: How did FDWA get started? Phoebe: There’s an annual event called Barrio Fiesta, a celebration of Filipino culture. An organisation called Migrante International [global organisation supporting overseas Filipino workers] had a tent there, and I approached them and we had a chat. I used to be a trade union organiser in the Philippines, so they asked me to join them in setting up an organisation to support Filipino domestic workers. That’s how I met the others.

Kay: What kind of issues were you tackling at that time? Phoebe: Before 1998, the government granted ‘concessions’ to domestic workers 1 – domestic workers gained entry through their employers and were tied to their employers, putting them in danger of abuse. After years of campaigning by trade unions and migrant groups, the Labour Party introduced a system that allowed domestic workers to change employers, and apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years. But in 2012, the Conservative government made it so that domestic workers would be unable to leave their employers without becoming undocumented again. Our main aim was to help people who couldn’t leave abusive employers. We also campaigned to reinstate the 1998 Overseas Domestic Workers visa. As of April 2016, domestic workers can change their employers, but only during the term of the 6-month visa they were admitted on.

[1] The primary rationale for such concessions was to attract wealthy foreign investors and ‘skilled workers’ who would want to bring their domestic staff with them.

Kay: What are the main activities of the group now? Phoebe: We rescue people. We’ll get a call that someone needs help escaping from their employer, and rescue them. But first we educate them about the law, and what might happen to them, so that they understand their situation before they run away. Then, we channel them to the right institutions. We refer them to the migrants right charity Kalayaan - ‘kalayaan’ means freedom in our language - then Kalayaan will interview them and see how they can help. For example, they’ll see if they are victims of human trafficking, and find them a solicitor. We also do workshops: ‘speak up’ workshops, which train people to be confident to share their stories; workshops with the Anti-Raids Network because of the status of most of our members; workshops on why are we forced to go abroad. We do not only focus on the situation here, but the issues back home – our families are still there, so whatever happens there, we’re still affected. We want them to be politically aware of the situation in the Philippines.

Kay: What was it like being a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia? Phoebe: It’s difficult. You are not allowed out of the house, not allowed to walk or talk to people - to the driver, to the gardener - even if you are in the garden playing with the kids you shouldn’t talk to men. Most of the time you are locked in the house – the house is always locked, every door is locked. If the police see you walking outside in the street, they’ll catch you, especially the women, and they’ll put you in jail.

portrait of Phoebe "Bing" Dimacali

to find out more about the Filipino Domestic Workers Assocation, visit fdwa.co.uk

Kay: And what legal changes are you campaigning for now? Phoebe: We want the government to ratify ILO [International Labour Organisation] 189, which grants important rights to domestic workers, and protects them from abuse and exploitation. We want to be recognised as workers, rather than ‘part of the family’. But it’s not only about work. With the current [hostile environment] policy, when people become undocumented, finding a place is hard because landlords ask for your passport before you can rent, and it is difficult to access healthcare when doctors ask for your passport as well.

Kay: Earlier you also mentioned workshops helping your members understand why they are here - what are the main reasons why your members become domestic migrant workers? Phoebe: Poverty. 99% of the time, poverty is the main reason. I’m a single mum with four kids - I used to work in

the local municipality as a clerk, but it wasn’t enough to feed my children, to send them to school. 2 Many women left their families and took the risk to go to the Middle East. We know it’s risky but it’s the cheapest option. Here in the UK, it’s only ‘highly skilled’ workers that can get a visa; for us, the domestic workers, we could go to Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, but there is an expensive placement fee. For people who go to Hong Kong, they pay thousands of our currency to go. They’ll borrow from the bank, or they’ll sell their belongings, their house, whatever they have. Most of us are forced to go to the Middle East because we don’t have the money.

Kay: What’s the process of migrating to the Middle East as a domestic worker? Phoebe: Agencies in the Philippines arrange for you to go to the Middle East – the Gulf states: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai. The agencies make sure you meet the requirements. They arrange for a general check-up to make sure you’re fit to go abroad, they get you a passport - many people do not have passports because they are too poor to travel abroad. Because this costs a lot of money, the agencies take your salary for the first six months. The contract will say you should be paid a certain amount, get days off, that your employer should not hold your passport, but none of this is followed. When I was in Saudi Arabia, I was supposed to be paid 1,500 riyal but I only got 750. In the Philippines, there is a law that you should be 25 years and above before you go, but they don’t follow that either. The agency will fake the birthday on the passport.

[2] The IMF and World Bank imposed its first structural adjustment program in the Philippines in 1980, and two more from 1983 to 1985 and 1990 to 1992. In 1977, remittances (migrant workers sending money to individuals in their home country) represented 1.7% of the country’s GDP, by 2015, it represented 10.3%.

Kay: How do people get from the Middle East to the UK? Phoebe: We can’t come here without our employer. So, it is only if our employer is visiting the UK that we can come here, and then we can run away. The money is much better here than in Saudi Arabia, and life is much better – you can go out on the street, talk to people, buy your own food, live out. Not like there, where you are like a prisoner. I didn’t know anyone in the UK when I came here. My boss was really strict, I couldn’t go out on my own. They didn’t give me two months wages before because they thought if I had money I’d try to run away. We were in the park one day and I was looking after the kids and there were two Filipinas talking. One was giving the other a number, asking her if she was alright, if she needed help. The other one said not really. I couldn’t talk to other people, I wasn’t even allowed to smile at other people. So, when I was with the children, I talked to the Filipinas but without eye contact. I said, “oh maybe you can help me as well”, facing the children the whole time. I told them I can’t really talk to you because the children will tell the mother and I won’t be able to go out anymore.

Then they said to me, OK let’s go to the toilet. I asked the two girls I was looking if we could go to the toilet. So I took them, and the Filipinas followed me but went into different cubicles. They gave me instructions, and a contact number. The kids asked me if I was talking to them, but I told them I was just singing to myself. So afterwards, I contacted them, and after two weeks, I ran away.

Kay: So that’s incredibly lucky that you heard the Filipinas there at that time. Phoebe: Yes. But there are always people looking out, people who have themselves escaped from their employers. I did that before FDWA existed – I took my children with me to the park, and we’d get near to other Filipinas. Most of them won’t talk to you, but some of them do. Because I had my kids, they would play with the children the Filipinas were looking after, and then they’d be like playmates and then I could talk to the Filipinas, and ask if they need help. At that time, they were still allowed to leave their employers but after 2012, I stopped doing that because it would be risky as they could become undocumented. When I ran away, the people who rescued me helped me to find another job before my visa ran out, and after that I could renew my visa. Now, you can only change employers if you find another employer before the 6 month visa you came on runs out. Otherwise, you can stay if you can prove you’re a victim of human trafficking.

Kay: How difficult is it to prove that you are a victim of trafficking? Phoebe: Often you’ll need physical marks of abuse. But there’s a long list of things - if your passports are not with you, if you’re not being fed, if you’re not paid the right amount of money, if you don’t have your own room. But one of our members didn’t have marks or

injuries and the Home Office said her case was very weak. We believe she was a victim of human trafficking - she didn’t want to come here, her employer decided she was their slave and decided everything for her. They told her, if the British Embassy ask you how much you’re earning, tell them you’re earning £1,500 per month, tell them you get a day off. This member of ours was refused a visa. The charity looking after her appealed. She was denied again. We encouraged her to appeal with a different institution. Now she has been given a visa. If you saw the short documentary “I am Just a Slave” on The Guardian - that’s her story. She showed her face, it was very brave. I still cry when I watch that video. That helped bring in the 2016 law. But when her case initially went to the Home Office, it was refused. It can really depend on the caseworker, how they interpret being trafficked, being a slave.

[Content warning: rape mention, abuse]

Kay: Are many of the cases you work with successful? Phoebe: Well, we have many cases. The first successful one we had since 2012 – she was a victim of sexual abuse. She was raped by her employer in a hospital in Gloucester, and had been raped in Qatar before. When she was in the hospital, she talked to the Filipino nurses there, and told them about her experience. And they said they could call the police for her. The hospital workers called us and we rescued her, and eventually she won her case. Another Filipina was threatened with murder by her employer – she won as well. Another lived in Knightsbridge, she wasn’t fed for ten days – she won.

Kay: What are the main difficulties when it comes to rescuing domestic workers?

Phoebe: One issue is that people don’t know their rights. There was a woman brought here, to Cheshire from Jordan. She got no days off and wasn’t allowed to go out. She thought the money she was receiving - £250 per month, for fifteen years - was the right amount. She didn’t know that she should have her own room, or that she should be holding her passport. She didn’t know anything. She only realised she had indefinite leave to remain here because someone else looked at her passport and told her so. She came back to the UK and went to the Filipino Embassy, who then called us. We launched a case against her employer for back-pay, which was maybe about £100,000 at that point. In the end, there was a settlement between them.

Another story: a woman came with the brother of her employer from Syria, which is a case of trafficking because she was not brought by her employer. She didn’t get enough food, and got no days off. Eventually, she overdosed on pills so they’d take her to the hospital. She didn’t know her rights, but she really wanted to leave the family. Her visa followed the old rule [before 2012], so she would have been able to change employer. But she didn’t know. When she was in the hospital, she told the nurses about situation, who told the police, and then the Filipino embassy. She came to stay with us, then we launched a case against her employer, and she won. She had left the Philippines when she was only 17, so the agency faked her birthday, so hers was a case of child trafficking too.

Just yesterday, we had a success story. She was first in Qatar, then came here with her employer in 2014. She ran away, but nobody told her what her rights were, so she didn’t know. She just worked, but in hiding. But then, she fell ill. She was scared to seek help because of this hostile environment policy. Eventually, her condition was so bad that she had to go to the hospital. It turned out she had a hyperthyroid problem, a heart problem, a very rare disease, and kidney problems. She was very ill, and bedridden. Then the doctors found out she was undocumented and had no access to healthcare. No one was visiting her, so the hospital wrote to the Filipino embassy, and to Kanlungan, and us. We launched a case to the Home Office. We got the result: she was a positive victim of trafficking. That gave her access to the NHS. They tried everything, but her body was not responding. She decided to go home, and the Home Office paid for everything because it was an AVR [assisted voluntary return]. But yesterday, she got to go home and see her family. But we consider that a success, because she was categorised as a victim of trafficking and gained access to the NHS.

Kay: So what can people do to help? Phoebe: Campaign with us! Join our workshops. Write to MPs, ask the government to ratify the ILO convention, ask them to reinstate the Overseas Domestic Workers visa. Speak out, as well. Let people know what is happening.