What it takes to send a family of Filipino domestic workers abroad
Mary Jane Veloso (right) greets her mother (left) and sister, Maritess Laurente (center), during her family’s visit to Indonesia in 2013. Veloso remains behind bars eleven years later. Credit: Migrante International
By Jan Cuyco and Cristina Chi, published in Tinig Ng Plaridel. Before boarding the plane to Saudi Arabia, Maritess Laurente stopped her mother and siblings from crying. The decision to become a domestic worker abroad had already taken most of her courage, and “it was bad luck to send me off with tears,” she said.