30,000 filipinos stranded in lebanon

according to BBC News, there are 30,000 filipinos stranded in lebanon. it reminded me of a young woman from maguindanao who left for lebanon early last year as a domestic worker. she told me that she wants to work overseas to help her parents and to "get away" from the war in mindanao. her comment is similar to other women i spoke to who left before the first gulf war, who were stranded in kuwait because of the war. the new generation of women from mindanao leaving the philippines for middle east have the same experience. they all want to help their families and also to "get away" from the bombings, from the military checkpoints, from the evacuation centers, from becoming refugees in their own homeland. insted, they arrived in the middle east and will again hear the bombings and again becoming evacuees but this time in a foreign land.

excerpt from an interview with TL:

After four months in Kuwait with a tourist visa, Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991. She was already working in Kuwait, then. She thought of her debts so she stayed in Kuwait though it was invaded by Iraq. Her paper works were processed in Bahrain so she could work in Kuwait. When she first left for overseas, she was in Kuwait. When she left the Philippines, she did not know where she would work and she only found out later on via Bahrain. Her paper work was for Bahrain and was discarded and she was given new paper work from Bahrain for Kuwait.

Her first employer was Kuwaiti and a widow with two young children. The children were the same age as her children. She had a co-worker who was also Filipina. She cleaned the house and washed the clothes. The other Filipina took care of the children. She stayed with her employer for one month. For three months, she worked with another Kuwaiti because the former employer left Kuwait because of the war. At her new job, she worked in a hotel as a waitress. She worked at “Second Home.” During the war, she stayed with other Filipinas in an underground shelter for two months. And she found a job after two months. She left the shelter after two months and worked in the hotel for eight months as a waitress. She was in Kuwait for one year and eight months. And she was told to go back home because of their families were worried. She left Kuwait in 1991. She left the Philippines in 1989 with a tourist visa and did not know where she would be working. And in 1991, she returned to the Philippines because of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.