Overseas workers urged: Fight trafficking thru social media

Monday, January 30, 2012

A FORMER domestic helper and migrant worker advocate in Davao City urged overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are working in safe environments to unite in a fight against human trafficking through social media.

Myrna Padilla said OFWs, who are in the position to help, should connect with each other via social media to provide a network capable of assisting the most vulnerable among the OFW communities.

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Padilla developed the recently launched social media website called OFWwatch.com after seeing the need to help the government protect migrant workers, especially those who are abused by their employers, victims of human trafficking and other distressed OFWs.

“Although many of our OFWs are working in safe environments, the horror stories of abuse are an almost daily occurrence with the impact hitting the most vulnerable sector of the OFW population made up of unskilled women workers,” she said.

She said OFWs "in secure and safe positions should rally together via social media to look out for the most vulnerable among the OFWs community."

Padilla, who now owns a business process outsourcing (BPO) in Davao City, said that the social media could empower migrant workers to watch out for each other and to combat abuses and human trafficking.

She said the OFWwatch.com is a combination of Facebook and mobile technology that allows OFWs to register their mobile and Facebook accounts.

The website has developed a database of thousands of addresses, telephone numbers, maps and emails of organizations involved with the OFWs, Padilla disclosed.

She cited that their database includes list of over 3,400 recruiting agencies nationwide licensed and registered with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

A directory in the website contains the normal addresses, telephone numbers, maps and descriptions of the OFWs, Padilla bared.

She added the directory also has a link to POEA's database "to check on the validity of a recruiter’s license and a sophisticated rating and review system."

"If we can use social media to rate restaurants, then we can use social media to rate recruiting agencies and other businesses delivering services to the OFWs," she said.

The OFWwatch.com has a long-term objective "to create an interconnected network of OFWs all over the world and provided them with the tools required to help each other."

Padilla, who worked as domestic helper for more than 20 years, is founder of the Mindanao Hong Kong Workers' Federation. She returned to the Philippines in 2006 and has since established her own BPO business called Mynd Consulting. (PIA)