DUBAI // The Philippine government should protect Filipina maids who are being illegally sent to other countries by their employers, a migrant rights group says.
Since last year Migrante-UAE has received complaints from two women, one in Qatar and another in Libya, who were forced to work there after their employers left the Emirates, said Nhel Morona, the group's secretary general.
Mr Morona said another maid in Dubai contacted the group when she learnt her employers had decided to return to Lebanon and wanted her to work for them.
"We warned her she would be an undocumented worker in Lebanon," he said.
"She should first return to the Philippines and her employer could hire her through an agency."
Amilbahar Amilasan, the labour attache in Dubai, said the Philippine overseas labour office had this month coordinated with its counterpart in Syria to rescue a maid.
Nida Lozada, a maid who worked for a Syrian employer in Damascus, arrived in Dubai on February 6.
"She originally sought help from the Philippine overseas labour office in Damascus to be repatriated," Mr Amilasan said.
"Due to the security situation, our government raised the crisis alert level from three to four in Syria, which called for the mandatory repatriation of Filipinos."
But Ms Lozada's employer refused to send her back to the Philippines and booked her flight to Dubai, en route to Doha.
She was instructed by the labour office to approach an immigration officer on her arrival in Dubai.
Venus Abad, the assistant labour attache in Dubai, was waiting for her at the airport and the Philippine consulate provided a ticket to Manila.
Mr Amilasan said the government also had problems with maids escaping from their employers when they accompanied them to the UAE on holiday.
Some end up in the Filipino Workers Resource Centre, a shelter in Dubai run by labour and welfare officials.
"They decided to run away to look for better job opportunities here," Mr Amilasan said.
This week Rosalinda Baldoz, the Philippine labour secretary, said the protection of household workers - the "most vulnerable" overseas Filipino workers - was a top priority.
Ms Baldoz directed all government agencies involved in overseas employment to work together to curb abuses that lead to Filipinos absconding from their employers.
Sangguniang Masang Pilipino International (Council of the Filipino Masses), a group dedicated to aiding domestic helpers, receives calls "almost every day" from maids who wish to leave their employers, said Ibrahim Romel Beltran, one of the group's officers.
rruiz@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Read more about the coronavirus
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: 2.3-litre, turbo four-cylinder
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Power: 300hp
Torque: 420Nm
Price: Dh189,900
On sale: now
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates