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Migrante Canada joined Migrante International in declaring December 18 as Zero Remittance Day, expressing outrage against systemic government corruption in the Philippines, where hard-earned remittances sent daily by Overseas Filipino Workers are pocketed by the state.
Workers said that they were required to work extremely long hours and were housed to cramped, undignified conditions, often sharing beds while fearing reprisals if they complained or left their jobs.
While wage theft, precarious working conditions, job insecurity, workplace harassment, loss of legal status persist, so does the strength, courage, and perseverance of migrant workers and the migrant rights movement in Canada and across the world.
“The forced migration of our kababayans due to lack of jobs, livelihood, and social services is a clear manifestation of systemic corruption in the Philippines.”
Filipino families who have been affected by immigration policies have relentlessly contacted the Philippine Consulate and Embassy only to be met with red tape and slow bureaucracy.
“She does not deserve to suffer behind bars not only because she is not a criminal under our legal system, but because she is a victim of trafficking,”
Each year brings record breaking typhoons, while the government is steeped in the corruption of public funds, meant for services and the livelihood of our kababayan.
They emphasized that all migrant workers deserve dignity, fair compensation, and proper classification in their workplaces.
“As we work hard abroad with most of us struggling for survival, the corrupt public officials and their co-conspirator private contractors freely squander the people's money. Our taxes, our remittances, and our hard work should serve the Filipino people, not line the pockets of the powerful.”
“We did not receive proper night differential or overtime pay, and some of us were not paid at all.”
Filipino progressives described the situation in the U.S. as “unprecedented and intense fascist attacks” on Filipino migrants, highlighting how recent events expose the Philippine government’s failure to protect its nationals abroad.
These scam hubs are essentially forced labor camps where victims, mostly from Southeast Asian countries, are coerced into working long hours under brutal conditions, including physical abuse and debt bondage.
A Filipino father detained at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington, underwent the amputation of a toe after months of alleged medical neglect.
“It is unacceptable for government agencies to ignore this. They are mandated to provide support and protection to our countrymen who are vulnerable to abuse, even murder, outside the country.”
“In an industry where precarious jobs, wage theft, unsafe conditions can be commonplace, where workers — especially migrants, women — face intimidation, fear of reprisal, for speaking up, it is not enough to just be part of a union. We must be part of a community. We only win the fight if we are part of a community,”
Joanna Concepcion, chairperson of Migrante International, said that the Filipino trafficking victims in Cambodia were able to come home because of the persistent efforts and constant follow-ups of their families with various government agencies. Concepcion criticized the government’s process of providing assistance to the victims and how it delayed their return to the Philippines.
"Kuya Max's release is a triumph of the people, not the Philippine government, which had abandoned him and numerous other Filipino migrants to languish in detention."
"Why does it take months of Filipinos suffering and requesting and demanding help for [the Consulate] to come? And why would they continue to make them wait?"
“There must be a full and comprehensive audit of OWWA’s funds because OFWs and the Filipino people have the right to ensure that public funds are used properly and not squandered."
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