Justice for OFW Joanna Demafelis (found in a freezer) Stick Around!
Hello my friends, this BobbieD, coming to you form Talamban, Philippines.
I'm having an awesome time in the Philippines today, hope you are as well, wherever you're
from.
Hey, today, I want to talk to you about Justice For OFW Joanna Demafelis (body found in a
Freezer).
Justice For OFW Joanna Demafelis (body found in a Freezer) Yah.
Now when we talk about the Philippines, you gotta understand this is a country where OFW's
Overseas Filipino Workers are abundant.
There are approximately 200 million Filipinos in the Philippines, in this country alone
and of that number, 10 percent are Overseas Filipino Workers.
Yeah!
And so OFW's are very important to this country's economy, and to this country's development
and future development as well.
This is a continuation of our series on crime.
And so today we're looking at the case of Joanna Demafelis.
A29, year old Filipina.
Joanna was the sixth of 9 children in the family and was raised in the Province.
Now Joanna was like most Filipinas, always wanted to help her mamma and papa and her
family.
So in 2013, Joanna's family was a victim of the huge typhoon called Yolanda.
It practically demolished their house.
And so Joanna wanted to do something to help the family recover from the typhoon damage.
She wanted to go and be an OFW to help her family renovate their home, help her family
re-purchase their mortgaged farm, and to help one of her siblings finish schooling.
So Joanna signed up with an agency and the next thing you know, She was on her way to
Kuwait.
And there she was employed by Nader Assaf and his wife Mona.
Now, Nader was a Lebanese national and his wife a Syrian national.
There Joanna worked for approximately a year and a half where she sporadically communicated
to her family and sent money home.
There was a time where the family had no communication with her for over a year.
And the family became very very concerned about this and reported Joanna as missing
to the OFW authorities.
Lo and behold, approximately a year later the manager of the apartment where Joanna
was employed, came to the apartment opened the door and found that the couple had left
the apartment empty.
And they searched the apartment and lo and behold, they found the body of Joanna, stuffed
in a freezer.
What a sad situation.
So, The manager reported it to the police and the authorities put out an international
manhunt for Nader and his wife Mona.
They were found, in Syria.
Damascus, Syria.
Nader was transferred to Lebanon and his wife now is in custody in Syria.
As a result of this heinous crime, President Duterte placed a ban on deployment for OFW's
to Kuwait.
Now, this ban is still in effect.
It doesn't affect those that are already there.
There's approximately 250 thousand Filipinos working as OFW's.
This ban affects future deployment to Kuwait.
This crime was so heinous, that it caused an international outcry from Human Rights
activists.
How could this happen to an OFW that was just trying to do her job?
It, it's imperative that the countries that OFW's work in protect the OFW's.
Arab nations handle OFW's under the system called KAFALA.
This is a system that's administered through most Arab nations.
It allows the employer to withhold visas, passport, cellphones, any computer equipment,
anything that would allow the OFW to communicate with their relatives and friends back home,
the employer has a right to withhold those items.
Not only that, if the OFW wants to change jobs, they have to get permission from the
employer.
It is thought that Joanna's communication may have been limited, due, due to her being
under the KAFALA system.
So, this is a terrible system.
It lends itself to abuse.
Because when you think about it, the employer of the OFW has pretty much total control of
the OFW.
When they have the ability to withhold their visa, when they have the ability to withold
their cellphone, and other communication devices, where they can't communicate to their loved
ones, that's control.
So this type of system contribute to the abusive environment of OFW's.
So, what am I saying?
Here we have a young lady, 29 years old, beautiful young lady, who was simly trying to help her
family and she volunterred to be an OFW.
She did'nt volunteer to be abused, She did'nt volunteer to be hurt, She did'nt volunteer
to be damaged, She did'nt volunteer to be brutalized and, and and mistreated.
Yet that's what happened and this is some things that, thank goodness, President Duterte
is working on to protect the rights of OFW's.
So what am I saying?
The bottom line is.
And I repeat in the words of Joejet Demafelis, which is Joanna's brother: Joanna did not
go to Kuwait to be killed.
She went there to help the family.
And it's good that th governmment eventually helped the family get their house repaired,
they helped the family repurchase thir mortgaged farm, and they helped the family send their
sibling to school.
It's good that all that happened, but it's terrible that it had to happen at the expense
of Joanna's life.
That's it for now my friends.
This is BobbieD saying take care, God Bless, and Peace!
For more infomation >> Karolyis break their silence - Duration: 2:40. 
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