By Blue Rose on Thursday, 22 of July , 2010 at 3:54 pm
The Filipina women who come to Denmark to work as au pairs not only have to work more than the 30 hours that the law allows. In a number of cases, their Danish host families have broken the law by seizing the women’s passports as a kind of guarantee that they won’t leave.
Right now, for example, a Filipina woman is trying to get her passport back from her previous host family that took it from her two months ago. She had problems and did not get along with the family, and now she wants to leave, says the Filipino General Consulate in Denmark to the online newspaper Avisen.dk.
Without her passport, she is unable to use the plane ticket that was supposed to bring her back to the Philippines, says General Consul Poul Krogh.
“The woman has been with her host family for a year, but when she wanted to leave she couldn’t get her passport back. Now the case is being processed at the Filipino embassy in Oslo,” he says.
The woman left the family because she was no longer able to work 14-15 hours per day. She was ordered to clean the host family’s home as well as with other members of the family, which goes strictly against all the au pair regulations.
Women fear losing their visa
Also the Churches’ Integration Services (KIT), which is in contact with the majority of the Filipina au pairs, have had several inquiries from au pairs whose families have seized their passports.
Recently, a woman was forced to work at the host family’s restaurant in the town of Skagen in northern Jutland. The family had taken her passport from her so that she could not leave.
KIT gave the woman a ticket to go to Norway where she was able to stay with friends, but she never got her passport back. She never reported the case to the police, which is not unusual according to Hans Henrik Lund, the leader of KIT. He says that the au pairs are afraid of being deported, because they no longer work as au pairs.
”The power is always with the Danish family, who can threaten to report the au pair to Immigration Services if they don’t do as they are told. And the Filipina women are well aware that their chance of winning is quite poor if they report the case themselves,” Hans Henrik Lund explains.
A hidden problem
Only on rare occasions, the authorities are informed when passports have been seized.
“But just because it is not reported it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen,” says Mette Pårensgaard, who is Office Manager at the Au Pair and Intern Office at the Immigration Services.
She says that every time the Immigration Services have information meetings for the filipina au pairs, the women ask about what to do if their families seize their passports. They have all heard that this has happened to others.
”We tell the girls that they should never ever hand over their passports. The host family can have a copy of the passport if they absolutely insist,” says Mette Pårengaard.
Illegal and humiliating
Having your passport taken away from you is a violating and traumatic experience, says language teacher Anne Grautier, who has taught about 1000 Filipina au pairs at a Danish language school.
“The girls are devastated – they feel declared incapable of managing their own affairs. Very humiliating for them,” she explains.
Neither the Police of Northern Zealand nor Europol have been able to inform Avisen.dk about the number of Filipino passports that are reported stolen or lost in Denmark every year.
From ScandAsia
http://avisen.dk/gidsel-trick-vaerter-stjaeler-filippinske-pas_130036.aspx
By Blue Rose on Tuesday, 13 of July , 2010 at 3:33 pm
Are you a sleep walker? Then wake up before you could do anything bad that you never expect will happen.
This is a true Story.
The memories are still clear, especially when the night comes, never had peacefull sleep since it happens five years ago.
It was middle of the night, Sarah(not real name) and her daughter fall asleep in her daughter’s room. The party was over and one of her husbands friend fall asleep in thier sofa, never expecting that it will happen, Danny(not real name) suddenly walk up stairs and went to her daughter’s room naked and start to have sex with her, thinking it was her husband, she tought what is he doing? Shocked and surprised registered in his mind and body when she realize it’s not his husband, she felt the force of his body while trying to have sex with her. She tried to push him and screamed, when the police arrived they found him still asleep as if nothing had happened. They took him away and left Sarah totally traumatised.
Year later, Sarah saw him again in court, he pleade not guilty in account for rape, reason? According to Danny’s, he had been asleep so had no idea what he was doing. Despite having no medical history of sleepwalking, the jury was unable to decide ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, so he escaped conviction.
This case is never an end, In the last five years, there’s been an upsurge of incidents where sleepwalking – a form of automatism that leads to unconscious behaviour – has been used as a criminal defense.
Year 2008, Harry kissed an under-age girl in her room while sleepwalking, he claimed that sleepwalking ran in his family and he was asleep at that time.
Previous year, Ralf 26 and Dennis 21, was acquitted from rape case, pleaded not guilty, as they are both sleeping when the rape of under-age girls happens. Smart ways huh! It is very hard to prove which sleepwalkers are genuine.
It is estimated that eight percent of sleepwalker are children, but that falls to less than one percent to adulthood, with the majority of sufferers being male. Sleepwalking occurs when a person is joltedawake, but areas of the brain that control thinking, planning and memory remain asleep. Family history, genetics and sleep deprivation all plays a substantial part.
A tragedy occured in july 2008 during a holiday. After being disturbed by boy racers, Edward dreamed that an intruder had broken in, but instead of fighting a burglar, he trottled his wife to death. When he woke up and realized what he’d done, he called 999 to confess. He spent ten months on prison, but after medical records proved that it was a sleep disorder, the case was dropped and Edward was found simply ‘not guilty’.
With a condition like this, the simple truth is that nobody ever truly knows. There are people who have the disorder, commit a crime and try to lean back on it to get away with it. One thing is certain, with the number of sleepwalking defence claims increasing all the time, it’s an issue that will remain.
What the law says
In English law – only people who have made a conscious decision to commit a crime can be punished. Sleepwalking is therefore often used as defence as its hard to prove and removes all responsibility.
By Blue Rose on Monday, 24 of August , 2009 at 3:52 pm
A tragic bus accident happens again, this accident happens in Lucena City, Philippines. According to the source Lucena Bus Lines, the bus bound Manila-Lucena. While the Bragais Bus Lines bound Tabacco-Manila.
The incident happens by around midnight; police investigation revealed that the Lucena bus was overtaking a vehicle when it smashed head-on into the Manila-bound Bragais Lines bus on the opposite lane.
The force of impact tore off the left side of the Bragais bus, killing 7 passengers instantly. Most of the victims, meanwhile, were pinned inside both buses. The bodies were brought to Funeraria Pagbilao in Laguna for autopsy. The 41 people injured in the accident, meanwhile, were immediately rushed to the Quezon Medical Center.
Unfortunately, it is very upsetting, heartbreaking and tragic event for a family that has been killed in the incident; they headed to Manila for them to meet the head of their family that will arrive from the other country tomorrow, working as an Overseas Filipino Worker. All of the family members died, including the 3 year old daughter, her mother and her mother in law.
The owner of Bragais Bus Lines rushed to Lucena City to give assistance to the casualties, they are thankful for the help, but also they are very upset because that help cannot bring their family members death back to life again.
