MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 26, 2012) – Saudi religious police detained 2 Filipino workers accused of prostitution following a raid on their flat that yielded a condom and porn video stored on a cell phone.
Migrante-Middle East, a Filipino migrants’ rights group, said relatives of one of the Filipinos sought help from their affiliate in Riyadh and informed them of the plight of the two men.
“The OFWs who were able to speak over the phone to their kin said they were shocked and furious that their accommodation was raided and on that same day sent them to jail allegedly in possession of a condom and pornographic video stored in a cell phone,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante’s regional coordinator, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
The Filipinos are now imprisoned in Al-Hair. Prostitution in Saudi is punishable by up to one year in prison and 100 lashes.
Monterona said they have already informed the Philippine Embassy about the OFWs so they can be represented and defended in court.
“We were given an assurance by officials of the Philippine Embassy’s Assistance to Nationals Section that they will closely follow the case and will recommend to the Department of Foreign Affairs to hire a local lawyer to defend the two Filipinos in court,” he said.
Monterona said they also asked the Philippine embassy in Riyadh to raise serious concern to appropriate Saudi authorities regarding the arbitrary raid of the police on the flat of the Filipinos, saying it violated their rights.
He said it was not the first incident of arbitrary search as there were also previous cases.
“This case depicts a clear violation of migrant’s right to privacy and to secure himself as guaranteed in the UN Convention on the Protection of Migrants and Members of their Families and of the International Human Rights Law.”
“We appeal to the concerned authorities to respect our rights as migrant workers and human beings as we vow to strictly follow the immigration rules and respect the social norms and tradition of the host government,” Monterona said.
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