An overseas Filipino worker from Iloilo City is pleading to be brought home after her employer in Saudi Arabia allegedly locked her in a room for three days without food, according to a report by Remate.
The worker, 27-year-old Leonor Falcis, arrived in the Gulf kingdom on August 11 to take up a job as a domestic helper.
According to Falcis, the confinement was triggered when she asked for a short break on her third day of work. She said she requested even 30 minutes of rest, which reportedly angered her employer, who then shut her inside a room and withheld meals for three days.
The days leading up to that point were grueling, she recounted. Her very first day on the job stretched to around 22 hours of cleaning the employer’s house, she said, while the following day ran about 19 hours, with pauses only to drink water or use the restroom.
While she was locked up, Falcis managed to send a voice message to her husband, Lawrence, letting him know what had happened to her. She also reportedly asked to be returned to her recruitment agency, and when she was placed in a vehicle, she appealed to the Filipino driver to take her to the agency rather than to any other stop.
James Mendiola, an official with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Region 6, said the OFW’s working visa and contract with her employer must first be canceled before an exit visa can be issued to her.
The case has already reached OWWA Region 6, which reportedly began the process of returning Falcis to the Philippines. As of the report, her employer had not issued any statement regarding the allegations.
