76 Pinoy bus drivers still stranded in UAE

abs-cbnNEWS.com
Created 05/29/2009 - 19:16

Seventy-six of the 137 Filipino bus drivers who were victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking are still stranded in Ajman Province, United Arab Emirates, the Blas F. Ople Policy Center reported.

Susan Ople, president of the Ople Center called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to come up with a contingency plan to assist the drivers who have been stranded there since January 2009.

The DFA was also urged to cancel the passport of recruiter Connie Paloma, manager of CYM International Services and Placement Agency, on the basis of the subpoena issued by the Senate to be followed by a warrant of arrest for her failure to attend the Senate labor committee hearings.

Paloma was seen in Dubai “where she reportedly went to convince some of the bus drivers to withdraw from the multiple cases filed against her.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chair of the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment learned of the plight of the remaining bus drivers in the UAE through the Ople Center and from the wife of one of the bus drivers.

Mrs. Irenea Maniego said the drivers continue to languish at Ajman Camp while waiting for the issue of overstaying fines be resolved.

“According to Mrs. Maniego, her husband has accumulated the equivalent of P40,000 in fines due to expired visas. The non-payment of fines of the remaining drivers stands in the way of their eventual repatriation or in the case of 15 drivers, their absorption into the workforce of Emirates Catering, a Dubai-based company,” the Ople Center said in a press statement.

Carmelita Dimzon, administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) told the Senate committee that the Philippine Overseas Labor Officer (POLO) is still in negotiations with Al Toomoh Technical Services to pay for the penalties for over-staying so the drivers can be eventually repatriated.

Al Toomoh is the UAE-based partner of CYM International Services and Placement Agency which recruited the bus drivers.

The bus drivers lived in what their legal council, Atty. Reynaldo Robles, described as a “deplorable condition”. They were housed at cramped quarters near a garbage dumpsite with no electricity and running water. The food donation from concerned members of the Filipino community in Dubai is almost dwindling.

Robles urged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to resolve the administrative complaint filed by the drivers against 12 conspiring agencies. When this is resolve, the escrow deposits of the agencies can be used to settle the immigration penalties of all remaining drivers.

Estrada’s committee is set to tackle the third hearing of the plight of the Filipino bus drivers in the UAE on June 3.
as of 06/01/2009 3:44 PM