ILLEGALLY RECRUITED MOM FROM PAMPANGA, LATEST IN LONG LIST OF ABUSED OFWS
MARIA SHIEGRID SANTOS, or simply “Grace” to family and friends, has become one of the latest victims of alleged abuse by an employer.
Her body is undergoing forensic investigation in a morgue in the United Arab Emirates and cannot be shipped home immediately.
The family was informed of her demise by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) last July 2, 2021, according to Grace’s daughter,
Mariel. The Sharjah police said they received the report of her death on June 24, 2021.
Grace’s husband Ariel and Mariel were presented to the media by Migrante International in a zoom conference on Friday to give an account of her deployment—by an illegal recruiter—to the Middle East, until her untimely death under questionable circumstances.
Grace, 40, was from Pola, Oriental Mindoro, but stayed in her husband’s hometown in San Luis, Pampanga. They have five children.
Ariel was unable to talk, weighed down by his grief, and kept his head bowed throughout the conference. It was Mariel, in between sobs, who gave an account of her mother’s tribulations.
“Mama left the country in 2019 to work abroad; we didn’t want her to leave because we feel we could manage. She had gone to work abroad before but her efforts were without any luck,” she said in Pilipino.
“She had to go because I am about to go to college. Mama wanted to give us what we wanted—for me, an education. She took her chances and endured so much hardships while working in the UAE.”
The young Santos admitted that her mother went abroad as an illegal worker.
“She was TNT, (the Filipino term for tago-ng-tago, or always in hiding), then the pandemic came, but she insisted that she can manage the difficult work. But then her employer was very strict,” Mariel narrated.
“My mother was very kind, she doesn’t deserve this punishment. She went to work in order for me to be able to study and remit money for our needs,” Mariel sobbed.
In the last three months, “her remittances were not coming regularly,” and so they suspected something amiss.
Mariel came to know that those who killed her mother have been detained —the father and mother of the family, and two children, one of whom is underage.
In Mariel’s view, Grace was killed “because she was demanding that she be paid her salaries.”
In June 2021, Mariel said her mother had an intense argument with the employers because she had been kept in a room and seldom fed, and was not given her salary.
Mariel continued: “We told her to come home even without her money, but mama insisted she had to fight for what is hers, her salary.”
According to foreign news accounts, Grace had worked in Saudi Arabia and Qatar before and left the country for the UAE as a tourist on July 2019, aided by an unknown recruiter.
Her remains are at the CID Mortuary in Sharjah and UAE authorities said they will not release the body until the examination is over.
Illegal recruiter
GRACE left Manila on a tourist visa, assisted by an illegal recruiter, who has yet to be identified.
At the UAE, another recruitment agency met Grace, and introduced to an alleged employer who brought her to Sharjah, UAE, 164 miles away from the capital, Abu Dhabi, some one hour and a half by car.
Teresita Apitan of Gabriela, one of the zoom participants, said that, “based on [the] welfare officer [report] last July 14, 2021 she has legal counsel and it was confirmed that the four members of the family who killed her are in a detention center.”
However, she added, “There is no final report; what is needed is a higher forensic expert to perform the autopsy. We are waiting for the death certificate from the hospital.”
She said all the information gathered surrounding the death of Grace Santos have been forwarded to the Department of Foreign Affairs.