Group seeks restraining order on psych tests for OFW

**relly_boy** · August 27th, 2008 12:19 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Members of Migrante International on Tuesday said they would file a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Department of Foreign Affairs' (DFA) mandatory implementation of the psychiatric tests for all Filipinos seeking work abroad.

The group said its members would troop to the DFA national headquarters to warn the chairman of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Esteban Conejos Jr against implementing the tests.

“The tests are discriminatory against departing domestic workers," said Migrante International spokesperson Garry Martinez. “The psychiatric tests are additional burden to the OFWs and another reason for government to exact unreasonable fees from us."

Recently, OFWs repatriated from Jordan said that they were asked by embassy officials to admit crimes they did not commit just so they could escape detention abroad.

“Isn’t it the height of lunacy that not one of the three officials have done anything about reports that innocent Filipino citizens were being forced by their own embassy officials to accept crimes they did not commit, just so they can escape abusive employers and go home?" said Martinez.

“And to the disclosures of accused OFWs being forced to plead insanity as the only legal defense offered by our embassy officials, Conejos has the temerity to brandish highly questionable data about maids in death row and submit psychiatric testing as the solution. What a loony solution!" he added.

The Migrante leader urged the government to look at “the other side of the coin" referring to abusive employers, even murderous ones, who had gotten away with their crimes and embassy officials in cahoots with them because “this government would rather have our bagong bayani as sacrificial lambs rather than risk their cheap labor export industry and the billions of dollars in remittance it churns out to save the economy."

“The psych test is indicative of what the Conejos will bring to the upcoming GFMD in October. The government will merely play lip service to protecting and empowering migrants," said Martinez.

To counter DFA's move, Migrante International, the International Migrants’ Alliance, the Asia-Pacific Mission for Migrants and Ibon International, will hold the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees to challenge the GFMD to tackle genuine migrant issues such as forced migration and poverty.