Migration, Development and Human Rights: The Philippine Experience

Kaagapay Overseas Filipino Workers Resource and Service Center, Incorporated Mindanao - PHILIPPINES
CCFD Terre Solidire

Spot it Philippines

Luzon

Visayas

Mindanao

Why do Filipinos Leave the Country?

How Many?
More or less 15 Million OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) work outside the country In 2009, there was an estimate of 4,314 OFWs who leave the country EVERYDAY In a year, more or less 1.5 Million newlyhired OFWs left the country

Number of Deployed Landbased OFWs by Major Occupational Category, New hires in 2009
Occupational Category Service Workers Production Workers Professional, Medical, Technical and Related Workers 117,609 47,886 Number 138,222

Clerical Workers
Sales Workers Agricultural Workers Administrative and Managerial Workers Others

15,403
8,348 1,349 1,290 1,645

Top 10 Destinations of Newly-hired and Rehired OFWs in 2008-2009

Country Number of OFWs

2008 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Hong Kong Qatar Singapore Kuwait Taiwan Italy Canada 275,933 193,810 78,345 84,342 41,678 38,903 38,546 22,623 17,399

2009 291,419 196,815 100,142 89,290 54,421 45,900 33,751 23,159 17,344

Bahrain

13,079

15,001

Stock Estimate of OFWs in Europe (2012)

Countries in Europe United Kingdom Italy Germany Greece Spain Number of OFWs 200,987 119,508 55,309 51,656 51,268

France Austria

50,013 29,824

How Developed?
ECONOMY
A. Country
Year 2010 2011 2012 Amount of Remittance 17.3 Billion USD 20.11 Billion USD 21.39 Billion USD

 B. Family (for those who are lucky) Send their children/siblings to school, acquired properties and built their own house, etc. (for those who are unlucky) Still have loans to pay, some properties are still under mortgage, etc.

SOCIAL A. Country/Society
Outnumbered productive labor forces of the country such as doctors, nurses, teachers, laborers, etc.)

 B. Family/Self In most cases, families/parents separate; children become juvenile delinquents; dependency, consumerist and materialist attitude of family members;

Human Rights in Question

Republic Acts 8042 and 10022
Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 and its Amendatory Law Provisions on illegal recruitment Provided the rights to be informed before deployment (PDOS) Rights to be repatriated (P100 M fund every year) Repatriation of underage workers Migrant Workers Loan Guarantee Fund (P100M)

 Does not include the falsification of documents as act of illegal recruitment Obligatory insurance coverage of OFWs who undergo in recruitment/manning agencies Despite of the continuous experiences of abuses on OFWs, Legal Assistance Fund for 2011 for the distressed OFWs was decreased (from P50 Million in 2010 to P27 Million in 2011)
DFA reported that only P7.78 million was used because of the limitations to the amount imposed by the Migrant Workers Act, adding only 196 overseas workers had availed themselves of the fund from 2011 to August 2012.

Kaagapay and CCFD Initiatives

Education, Training and Organizing

 Legal Assistance and Counseling

 Micro-Enterprise Development