Niet alleen belanden vrouwen her en der in de seksindustrie, waar ze als slaven worden behandeld, maar ook de arbeidskrachten wacht veelal eenzelfde behandeling: lange werkdagen en opvang in wat je het best een gevangenis kan noemen, uiteraard tegen een minimale betaling, althans als die al volgt..... Maar liefst 21 miljoen van deze werkers leven in wat niet anders dan dwangarbeid kan worden genoemd.........
Lees dit onthutsende relaas van Emma Fiala, eerder geplaatst op Media Roots. Hierin beschrijft zij ook een deel van de Filipijnse geschiedenis en besteedt ze aandacht aan de 2 documentaires die Abby Martin over deze zaak maakte (de links naar de video's zijn opgenomen in het artikel):
Watch: Abby Martin Reveals Booming Modern Day ‘Buy a Slave’ Market
(MR) — In
this two part series on the US/Philippines human trafficking
epidemic, Abby Martin recalls the history of the colonization of the
Philippines and how it has led to a dramatic rise in human
trafficking of Philippine workers.
She
interviews the executive director of Damayan, the 8,000 member strong
New York City based organization created and led by Filipino women
domestic workers that provides legal assistance to migrant workers
and human trafficking victims, as well as other victims of human
trafficking who have experienced the dark side of migrant employment.
Part
One: Buying a Slave – The Hidden World of US/Philippines
Trafficking
Part
Two: The Roots of the Philippines Trafficking Epidemic
The
Philippines has suffered the consequences of occupation and
colonization for hundreds of years with the effects still being seen
today in the form of poverty, job shortages and a human trafficking
epidemic. A shocking 10% of the Philippine population must leave the
country in order to seek employment in hopes of sending money back to
their families. An estimated 6,000 people, mostly women, leave the
Philippines daily to seek work.
Human
trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that entraps millions
of people across the globe. The majority of victims are abused–
living and working in shockingly inhumane conditions. Particularly
horrifying is the fact that, in the Philippines, humans have become
the number one export.
Most
of these migrant workers leave the Philippines for the United States,
the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Japan where they work in
low-wage jobs. In fact, 21 million people are working in forced labor
situations worldwide- many of them right under the noses of the
average citizen of these countries.
There
are currently 2 million migrant domestic workers working in the
United States. According to the recent report The Human Trafficking
of Domestic Workers in The United States, over 80% of these workers
have experienced their pay being withheld or having been paid under
minimum wage, 81% live in abusive conditions and 73% work excessive
overtime.
Through
this process, many of these migrant workers have become victims of
human trafficking and have found themselves stuck in a seemingly
endless cycle of abuse and neglect. But what has led to this
disturbing trend? Why do so many Filipinos flee their home country
for work and subject themselves to such harsh and inhumane
conditions?
The
Philippines was first claimed by the Spanish in 1525. The indigenous
Filipino people engaged in over 300 armed revolts over the next three
hundred years, eventually securing their independence after a two
year long war of independence. At the time, Spain was also engaged in
the Spanish-American war. Upon losing that war, Spain negotiated the
sale of the Philippines to the United States, behind the backs of the
Filipino people, for a total sum of $20 million in the Treaty of
Paris.
This
began a many decade-long hostile relationship between the Filipino
people and their new occupiers from the United States. With such a
volatile relationship, conflicts occurred frequently resulting in the
deaths of numerous Filipinos. In one such conflict, the Moro Crater
Massacre, only six out of 1,000 Filipinos survived. Shockingly, in
the first 15 years of colonization, more Filipinos were killed by the
U.S. than during the entire three hundred years of Spanish
occupation.
As
the violence decreased, the occupation took on a new form– economic
destruction and experiments in neocolonialism. There quickly became a
dependence on U.S. patronage for survival of the now fragile
Philippine economy and the U.S. began focusing it’s efforts and
attention on the elite of the Filipino people– training and
educating them to be vehicles of U.S. colonization.
This
led to the granting of Philippine independence in 1946 but that
independence was only in name. With the puppets of neocolonialism now
in charge of the country, the U.S. continued to have a direct line of
control, only now it was slightly obscured. Also in 1946, the United
States Congress passed the Rescission Act, stripping Filipinos who
fought in defense of the U.S. against the Japanese during World War
II of the benefits they were promised for doing so, yet another
damaging blow to the Philippine people.
“Our country was ruined primarily by the U.S.” –Linda Oalican
Tensions
between the Filipino people and the U.S. backed ruling class have
continued to this day, with the Philippine economy continuing to
suffer and a successful government propaganda campaign encouraging
workers to seek employment elsewhere via the Philippine Labor
Migration Policy continuing to grow. In this episode, Abby Martin
details the history of the colonization of the Philippines, starting
with the Spanish in 1525 and ending with the present day situation,
leading to an exodus of able-bodied workers from the Philippines to
all corners of the globe– often ripping families apart and damaging
relationships for years to come.
“The
history of the Philippine resistance is an unbroken chain– from
it’s first hand-to-hand battles against colonizers wearing armor
and swords to it’s organizing against today’s exploiters who wear
three piece suits, the poor and oppressed of the Philippines are much
more than victims of the system, but are indeed the force that will
change it.”
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