2 Maltreated Filipino Workers Sent Home
The two Filipino domestic workers rescued recently by the labor office in Hail finally left for home on Sunday.
Marcelina Janapin, 46, and Rowena Perea, 42, thanked Arab News for publicizing their case, and the Labor Ministry’s Hail Director General Saleh Al-Ahmari, and Ameera Luna Domingo, a Filipino community leader, for their help.
“They could have left earlier but had to wait for the amounts due to them from their employer and for an available flight back to the Philippines,” said Domingo, who referred their case to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh and worked on their behalf with the labor office in Hail.
Janapin and Perea were hired as dressmakers in Manila in April 2013 by the Mayon International Trading Corporation, which were later found to have closed down.
They each signed a contract for SR1,875 a month plus a SR300 food allowance. However, they were made to work as housemaids for different families, with their employer collecting SR5,000 a month for each of them.
This is a violation of the contract signed between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia in April 2013.
They are not supposed to work for an employer other than their sponsor.
They also received between SR1,200 and SR1,300 a month, which is below the SR1,500 monthly salary stipulated under the new labor contract signed between the Philippines and the Kingdom.
With each of them having received SR8,000 from their employer, they plan to go into business. Janapin plans to invest in a restaurant and rent out dresses she bought in Hail, while Perea intends to start a beauty shop.