Four Filipinas sue employers of diplomats in Switzerland for slavery

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By Webdesk


Geneva/Berlin – On the morning of her court hearing, Virginia awoke with cold, clammy hands and feet, gasping for air. She had another panic attack.

“Never in my life did I think I would face lawyers abroad in a courtroom,” the 46-year-old Filipina told Al Jazeera.

What she knew about court cases from televised courtroom dramas worried her, but it was who she was dealing with that made her nerves tremble.

Virginia filed a lawsuit against her diplomat employers at the Pakistani mission in Geneva, Switzerland, claiming she had been unpaid for more than 20 years.

The contract, which she signed in the Philippines in 1999, stated a monthly salary of 1,200 Swiss francs ($1,329) for a 40-hour week, along with room and board and health insurance.

Virginia, then a 22-year-old mother of two, learned upon arrival in Geneva that she was expected to work three times a week without pay for the Pakistan Mission. It would be up to her to find another job to have enough money to live on.

The sponsorship of her visa required her compliance and her silence.

The Filipino maids employed by the Pakistani mission in Geneva have not received a salary for 20 years.
Virginia arrived in Geneva in 1999 [Nicolas Dupraz/Al Jazeera]

Its employers enjoy diplomatic immunity.

“They are so powerful. They are untouchable. My faith in God and the truth are my only weapons against their immunity,” Virginia said.

Virginia and three other Filipino housekeepers are suing the Pakistani mission to the United Nations in Switzerland, seeking compensation for back wages and other damages.

Evidence and testimony gathered as of 2021 support the allegations of violations of Swiss labor law, threats, coercion, exploitation and human trafficking.

The Swiss mission, which oversees the issuance of visa permits to domestic workers in diplomatic households and monitors compliance with employment contracts, confirmed that the matter is currently under investigation.

The Swiss mission has suspended the issuance of visas for domestic workers employed by the Pakistani mission until the dispute is resolved.

“Switzerland does not tolerate any abuse of the working conditions of private household employees in a diplomatic context,” said Paola Ceresetti, spokesman for the Swiss mission.

In an email, the Pakistani mission in Geneva told Al Jazeera they do not comment on matters pending resolution, but said: “The mission takes its obligations under applicable international law and local regulations very seriously. It also pursues its rights, including the right to defend itself against innuendo through available mechanisms.”

Diplomatic Immunity

Data from the Swiss mission showed that 102 visas were issued to migrant domestic workers from Africa, South America, Asia and other countries between 2019 and 2022.

Under the Vienna Convention, the diplomatic immunity of state envoys and employees of international organizations enables them to perform their duties without fear of retaliation from foreign governments by protecting them from criminal or civil proceedings.

Ben Vanpeperstraete, senior legal adviser to the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, a not-for-profit legal organization, points to the importance of diplomatic immunity in maintaining cordial international relations.

However, the protection of domestic workers facing abuse and exploitation by their diplomatic employers remains a glaring gap.

Open-source court documents, news reports and NGO files revealed more than 140 incidents of diplomats and employees of international organizations involved in the exploitation and trafficking of domestic workers between 1996 and 2020.

The charges ranged from threats and coercion to physical, psychological and sexual abuse, as well as low wages or no pay at all.

Almost all of the victims were women from developing countries.

When cases were filed, they were usually dismissed due to diplomatic immunity. Cases in which compensation was awarded to the victim were usually not carried out because the diplomat had left the country or had been transferred to another embassy.

“It is almost impossible to use classic labor rights instruments to punish a diplomat or to monitor the conditions of the workers in their household,” says Vanpeperstraete.

It was not until 2022 that the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that housework in diplomatic households was a commercial activity and not protected by immunity.

The case brought by housekeeper Josephine Wong against Saudi diplomat Khalid Basfar was touted as the world’s first.

Precarious situation

The nature of their residence permit, which is linked to their employer, who acts as sponsor, exacerbates the precarious situation of domestic workers.

In extremely rare cases, a diplomat’s host country may request the waiver of immunity.

In 2007, three Indian women in the United States accused Kuwaiti diplomat Waleed al-Saleh and his wife, Maysaa al-Omar, of human trafficking, forced labor and physical abuse, including beating one of the women against a wall against the head.

The United States has asked Kuwait to lift its diplomatic immunity. When Kuwait refused, al-Saleh was removed from the US and reportedly banned from entering the country.

The Filipino maids employed by the Pakistani mission in Geneva have not received a salary for 20 years.
Virginia’s employers have diplomatic immunity [Nicolas Dupraz/Al Jazeera]

In the case of the four Filipino housekeepers in Geneva, the Swiss mission said the waiver of immunity was one of the measures that could be applied, but withdrew further details so as not to jeopardize the continuation of the proceedings.

What often happens is a “negotiated way out”.

“The ambassador is rotated or goes back to his home country,” says Vanpeperstraete.

In 2017, two Filipino housekeepers charged Pit Koehler, an adviser to the German mission to the United Nations in New York, and his wife with human trafficking and forced labor.

Both cases were dismissed due to diplomatic immunity. However, U.S. court documents state, “Notably, nothing in the defendants’ motion to dismiss on the basis of diplomatic immunity disputes the actual allegations of the complaint.”

On at least three separate occasions in Germany, Koehler represented the German Foreign Ministry at NGOs or academic events to speak about human rights.

In an e-mail, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said he was aware of the allegations against Koehler.

“The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes such information very seriously. It has examined the allegations in the present case very carefully. The allegations are unsubstantiated… If there are indications of misconduct in individual cases, we thoroughly investigate the indications. If the allegations are confirmed, we will take the appropriate consequences.”

Outside diplomatic channels

Out of court, cases are often transferred to labor tribunals or conciliation bodies that negotiate disputes between employees and employers who enjoy diplomatic privileges.

According to Geneva-based Bureau de Amiable Compositeur (BAC) president Martine Brunschwig Graf, payments from employers to workers resulting from BAC intervention averaged about 128,000 Swiss francs ($145,000) per year from 1995 to 2022.

“It has never happened before that the employee is paid the full amount due. Usually only part is recovered by paying the diplomat or embassy,” said Lea Rakovsky, project coordinator of Ban Ying, a non-governmental organization based in Berlin and one of the few groups specializing in exploitation cases. in diplomatic households.

Ban Ying estimates that in Germany’s approximately 200 diplomatic households, about a third of domestic workers come from the Philippines, with a smaller number coming from African countries and Indonesia.

“The whole situation makes employees feel helpless. They think Europe is a better work option for them, but it’s exactly the same,” said Krisanta Caguioa-Moennich, cultural mediator for Ban Ying.

Reporting for this project was supported by JournalismfundEU and the Pulitzer Center



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