Local sponsor takes Filipino expatriate for a ride

Manama : A Filipino expatriate is seeking justice as her sponsor has been refusing to give her release and passport. Jeny Agbulig, an expatriate from the Philippines, worked for Transport Offshore Reclamation Contracts, a private firm, as a staff cleaner and a caterer assistant. 

According to Jeny, the sponsor cancelled her visa unannounced on May 2, 2017 and is still holding on to her passport and refuses to give her release unless she pays him the ransom he demanded. 

“It was last year in August I signed a contract with the company and after a month they provided me a work visa. Although I signed all necessary official documents, the management neither provided me a copy of the offer letter nor any employment contract,” Agbulig said, adding that everything works verbally here and none of the employees gets any documents or copies from the office.  “We weren’t ever given salary slips. All we did was sign our names on a sheet of paper. We never had fixed working hours, most of the days we worked for more than 15 hours a day,” she said.

“Even though we complained, my colleagues told me that no action would be taken and once the contract is over the company would automatically renew the visa without our consent. On March 9, 2017, my sponsor called me for a meeting and without any notice, he told me to stop working. Further, he gave me three options: If I need my release and my passport I have to pay him BD300. Second, if I want to go back to Philippines my pending salaries will be used for my airline ticket; and thirdly, he asked me to continue working for BD70”.

“He cancelled my visa unannounced on May 2, 2017, and refused to give back my passport until I pay him the money he has demanded. I took the issue to the Ministry of Labour to get back my passport and my pending salary.  The ministry provided me with the copy of my employment and that was when I realised somebody had forged my signature on that contract document.”

“While I was working with him he used to verbally threaten me of putting me in jail”. DT News did get access to the footage of the sponsor demanding BD300 from the employee. When contacted Sayed Saleh Mohsen, owner of the firm, refused to comment on the issue.