A 14-year old OFW in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia virtually “jumped from the frying pan into fire” as she tried to abscond her abusive employer only to be raped by a man who pretended to offer her help, a strike of misfortune that crushed the spirits of the “child worker” from the Philippines.
As reported in GMA News “Saksi” on Tuesday evening said that the 14-year-old OFW Amira (not her real name) was trying to run away from her abusive employer when she met a foreign man who pretended to be concerned and offered to help her.
But Amira claimed she was raped by the stranger three times before she could slip away from him.
In 2018, Amira left the Philippines to work as a household service worker in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She said poverty pushed her to try her luck abroad. Her recruiter, she claimed, faked her age and her travel documents so she could be deployed abroad.
While trying to run away from her employer, she met a man who promised to help her, but the foreigner raped her three times. Se got away from her sexual abuser when the latter met an accident, she said.
Aside from Amira, another underage female OFW (whom we only call Jana) and whose travel documents were also faked by the recruiter, also absconded her employer after she was accused of stealing.
Jana claimed she was made to clean the houses of her employer’s friends, a task not specified in her work contract.
Amira and Jana are now under the care of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Jeddah, and their exit papers are being readied for their repatriation.
OWWA assured the two that their respective recruiters would be made to account for faking their travel documents.
