Starving for 6 days, OFW in Jeddah eats garbage

Another sad overseas Filipino worker’s (OFW) story is hitting the social media these days.  But this is not about harassment, rape or acts of lasciviousness but grave physical abuse particularly starvation.

A Filipina OFW in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia who is named “Lorna”, not her real name was allegedly not fed by her employers for almost one week.  She was rescued by officials of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Jeddah.

GMA News “24 Oras” showed a video of Lorna eating spoiled food that allegedly came from the garbage.

Lorna showed distress and explained she was already starving to death for not eating for six days.  She said she was eating food from the garbage just to have her stomach filled up with any food to prevent her from starving.

The video showed that Lorna was on the verge of vomiting the spoiled and rotten food she was eating.

According to Lorna, she was starved by her employer she is serving for two years after she asked for a day off  (but was denied) and for turning down her employer’s order to clean her child’s house.

Lorna then sought the help of the concerned agencies and officials through social media and her case successfully reached the office of OWWA in Jeddah. She was immediately rescued with the help of the recruitment agency that deployed her to Jeddah.

Lorna expressed her joy and gladness that she was able to move out from her employer’s house.

OWWA asks other OFWs in Saudi Arabia to avoid escaping from their employers.  They should wait for OWWA to rescue them for the officials are doing all their best to help them.

Labor Attache Labat Nasser Munder said that there are OFWs who are rushing to move out from their employer’s house and may think of escaping as an easy way out but they are oftentimes charged with thief, which makes the situation even worse and delays the rescue process.

OWWA is at present working on Lorna’s papers to go back to the Philippines in the soonest possible time.

Source: GMA News