… or Beast of Burden?
I first met Amy from the Philippines after she was brought to the Hope Workers' Center in Taiwan. The Center provides temporary shelter, assistance and counselling for exploited workers, victims of labor and/or sex trafficking.
When Amy spoke about her life in Taiwan, she made it sound amusing. However, when she was asked to document her story for transfer papers with the Council of Labor Affairs, we discovered that it was far from amusing.
Amy's reason for working abroad is the same story that we hear over and over again from migrant workers: marriage to an unemployed spouse, a need to provide a better life for family members including a good education for the children, food and a home.
Amy accepted a "fly-now/paylater" arrangement with an agency to work as a caregiver in Taiwan. Each month for twelve months, $440 would be deducted from her salary, totaling $5,280, which was the cost of her placement fee. According to the law, the legal placement fee should only be a month's salary ($700) plus other documentation, processing and miscellaneous charges not exceeding $1,550.
Amy arrived in Taiwan on September 8, 2010, as a caregiver to an elderly woman who passed away two months after she arrived. She was then transferred to work for another employer and was again contracted to work as a caregiver. However, her new "ward" was healthy, and Amy was made to work on the farm. When anyone asked her employer what Amy's nationality was, the employer answered, "to hao ben, mei you yong, bu dong, ben dan de feilubin ren," which translates to: "she is so stupid, useless, doesn't understand anything, brainless Filipino."
Amy began work at 8:30 a.m. taking pig and chicken manure, her ward's urine and feces, leftover vegetables and leftover food to the compost fertilizer which was left to rot and produce worms. The smell was so overwhelmingly foul that Amy rarely ate lunch and developed migraines, dizziness and shortness of breath.
Each day at 2:30 p.m. she returned to her employer's house where other chores awaited her. At 4:00 p.m. she returned to the farm where she carried out heavy manual work until 7:00 p.m. Her day was still not over when she returned home.
Stress, exhaustion, and lack of sleep took a toll on Amy's health. Her hair began to fall out, and her gums began to bleed. She was afraid to complain. Her thoughts of her family and the obligation of repaying her loan gave Amy the strength and determination to see out her contract.
Amy said she was treated like a beast of burden. She said that her employer did not need a caregiver but a farmer and a caribao (water buffalo). Showing her very dry and calloused hands, she said, "I am a woman but they asked me to do a man's work. I work like a carabao."
Amy called her broker repeatedly to inform him about her situation but the broker replied that if she really wanted to change employer she would need to pay him almost $900, and he would take her to China to work. Amy suffered in silence, endured one year of abuse and repaid her loan. The love of her family and trust in God gave her the strength to get through it.
While at the Hope Workers Center, Amy had a medical check-up while waiting for her documents to be transferred to another employer. Hopefully a more compassionate one this time.
Beth Sabado is a Columban lay missionary and was the former Director of the Hope Worker's Center in Taiwan. She is presently the Columban lay missionary coordinator in the Philippines.