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Filipino evacuees also faced sponsors' hostility in Lebanon

A total of 119 Filipinos who fled Lebanon were yesterday airlifted to the Dubai International Airport.

The evacuees, comprising mostly women employed as domestic helps, became emotional as they recounted their tortuous escape from Israeli bombs as also their sponsors. They told members of the Press and officials of the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) in Dubai how the bombing raids had more or less flattened the south of Lebanon.

"We spent nine hours on the road from Beirut to Damascus. It was warm and humid. When we reached the monastery in Damascus, where we stayed prior to our repatriation, there was not enough food because there were so many of us," said Angelita Quevedo, who has worked in Beirut for the past four years.

To Maureen, however, what was more traumatic was the fact that their employers tried to deprive them of a chance to leave the country. "Many of us had a similar experience. Our sponsors didn't want us to leave. Despite being aware that the Philippine Embassy in Beirut had already announced the evacuation of all Filipinos, they didn't inform us."

"I was able to convince them that my government had directed us to leave. Some Filipinas, however, were not as fortunate. I know someone who was not allowed to leave the house and whose room was padlocked by her sponsor," she said.

Maureen added that, at the Philippine Embassy in Beirut, employers had tried to get Filipinas to return to work by force, prompting embassy staff to hide them.

Gina, another Filipina housemaid, said she was allowed to carry just a single bag of clothes because her employer wanted her to return as soon as the war got over. "My sponsor didn't give me my salary; so I do not have money to bring home. But I'm glad to have escaped the bombings."

Gina told Khaleej Times that some Filipina housemaids had been left behind by employers who had themselves fled the bombings. "There are lots of Filipinas whose sponsors have already fled the country without them. Some of these desperate women jump off buildings because the main doors are often locked up. There are even some who end up psychologically traumatised."

One of the evacuees whom members of the Press chanced upon was frailly-built Conchita Torres. According to some of her compatriots, Conchita had been in Beirut for only two months working as a housemaid. She barely spoke and hardly ate during the days that they were in the evacuation zone in Damascus, they said.

Conchita continued to be reticent, not establishing eye contact when interviewed by Khaleej Times. All she would say was that she had a 12-year-old daughter back in the Philippines.

Aside from working without off-days and wages and suffering maltreatment and physical abuse, some Filipinas complained that the contracts they signed in the Philippines had been altered by the time they reached Lebanon. "I was supposed to receive a salary of $200 a month but I was given only $150. Likewise, my contract was changed from one-and-a-half years to three years," Gina said.

Eighty of the evacuees left Dubai last night via Qatar Airways flights QR 109 and QR 119 bound for Hong Kong via Doha. They were expected to reach Manila today on board Philippine Airlines flight PR307. The remaining 39, however, were airlifted by Cathay Pacific to Manila via Hong Kong and are also expected to reach Manila today.

Meanwhile, Philippine Consul General Antonio S. Curameng called for steps towards the proposed selective ban on the deployment of Filipina housemaids to the Middle East. "There should be a ban with a few exceptions, particularly when it concerns royal families and renowned personalities of the Middle East, who would require the service of our domestic helps. We have to be certain that our workers will be treated humanely."