ILO, Quezon City convene dialogue to enhance Migrant Workers Resource Centre

QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES - Over a hundred returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in Quezon City had a dialogue with the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Ms Chihoko Asada-Miyakawa.

The Quezon City Migrant Worker Resource Centre (MRC) hosted the dialogue held on 18 April 2023. The MRC was the first to be established in Metro Manila offering services to migrant workers, returning OFWs and their families, with the goal of enhancing migration and development. This was followed by an information session and capacity building to strengthen reintegration services.

Mr Rogelio Reyes, Manager Quezon City Public Service Employment Office (QC PESO) welcomed Ms Asada-Miyakawa along with Mr Khalid Hassan, Director of the ILO Country Office for the Philippines. It was the first field visit of the Regional Director to the Philippines and the Quezon City MRC.

Mr Reyes provided an overview of the MRC and its services. In addition, he discussed the daily operations of the centre in response to the concerns of migrant workers and their families. The local government operates the MRC in collaboration with civil society, OFW or family organizations and international development partners.

One of the women OFW returnees shared her migration experience during the dialogue. “I worked for more than 12 years as an OFW. I left my six children and job as a teacher in order to support their education and help my other siblings. I experienced maltreatment, as well as having to work even if I was sick,” said a former migrant worker.

According to her, there are many more OFWs in worse situation than she was. She helped several OFW domestic workers experiencing violence and abuses by their employers, including asking the embassy to rescue them. However, her return and reintegration posed a challenge, which she was able overcome with the assistance of the local government.

“Life during COVID was the hardest period for me. I returned to the Philippines after I recovered from COVID. I now help organize fellow OFWs, returnees and families here in QC, share information about the programmes of the MRC and QC, and help the migrant workers access the services,” she shared.

In the dialogue, the Regional Director asked about the motivation of OFWs to migrate again despite difficulties and challenges, including the assistance they receive from the MRC.

Low wages, lack of decent work opportunities in the country, the desire to provide a better education for their children and the need to support their families were among the reasons cited by returning OFWs for their decision to return abroad despite their experience.
The search for decent work opportunities was aggravated by age restrictions, as the majority of returning OFWs are already overage and have limited or no retirement or social protection coverage. Yet, returning OFWs remained hopeful that the ILO and the MRC could provide additional support for the reintegration process.

Mr Hassan reassured the workers that the ILO, especially the Regional Director, has been working on these areas to ensure the creation of more decent jobs and workers’ rights protection.

“We need to industrialize the country. We need to move from the service sector to the industrial sector. In the industrial sector, investments will come in. New jobs will be created. And because of that, we will have high-paying jobs. This is what we have been working on with the United Nations, with many other agencies and development workers to come up with these programmes. We are also working with the MRC to strengthen and enhance its services” said Mr Hassan.

The Regional Director also reaffirmed the ILO’s commitment to addressing the issues of migrant workers at the community level through projects such as BRIDGE and Safe and Fair, upholding the rights of the workers, and supporting the Philippine National Economic and Development strategy, in which decent work is a top priority.

“I will continue to send the message to all Asia Pacific member states and other organizations that the rights of all workers should be respected and enforced,” said Ms Asada-Miyakawa.

Meanwhile, the Quezon City government, through Mr Michael Victor Alimurung, Quezon City Administrator, reiterated its commitment in helping OFWs and their families by providing training, emergency employment, assistance with vaccination, financial assistance to returning OFWs, among other services.

“The city continues to come up with various local initiatives to help, and on behalf of the Mayor, who really wanted to come here to assure all of you that the city government will continue to work with you to give you the best service possible,” Mr Alimurung cited.

He also thanked the national government and international organizations such as the ILO for their support and reiterated that the city government will continue to work with partner organizations in ensuring proper migration and reintegration.

“You can count on the QC MRC to continue finding ways and means to strengthen and elevate the quality of services and responses to the needs of the KaKyusi OFWs and their families,” reaffirmed Mr Rogelio Reyes, PESO Manager.

In collaboration with the ILO, the Quezon City government, under the leadership of Mayor Joy Belmonte, is also enhancing its services to be more gender-responsive. Part of the MRC support is funded by the European Union through the Safe and Fair Programme: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region. The ILO-UN Women-IOM BRIDGE Programme also contributed to the initiative.

The global EU-UN Spotlight Initiative is a 500-million-euro EU-UN partnership programme to end violence against women and girls. Safe and Fair is implemented in the ASEAN region, led by the ILO with UN Women and in collaboration with UNODC. Meanwhile, the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) supports the ILO-UN Women-IOM BRIDGE Programme to help the government meet its Global Compact for Migration commitments.