Warsaw/Katowice, Poland – Not lengthy after strolling by means of the doorways of an employment company on the ninth ground of a skyscraper in Hong Kong, Stephanie* was captivated by the concept of working in Poland.
Sitting on her mattress in her employer’s house later that night in late 2021, the home employee from the Philippines contemplated forsaking the neon lights of Asia for a brighter future in Europe.
Lower than a yr later, Stephanie landed in Warsaw, becoming a member of the rising ranks of Filipinos filling factories, warehouses, farms, accommodations, households and development websites in Poland.
There, Stephanie’s dream collided with the tough actuality of menial work within the central European nation.
After getting a job at a poultry manufacturing unit in a small city in western Poland, Stephanie was paid simply 700 zlotys ($175) for a month’s work, she mentioned, a fraction of the some $1,000 promised to her by recruitment brokers.
Whereas Stephanie didn’t absolutely perceive how her wage was calculated, her employer made deductions to cowl her dormitory lodging, uniform, work footwear, and the applying for her Non permanent Resident Card, she mentioned.
Stephanie discovered the work itself gruelling, combating the repetitive motions of reducing up frozen rooster components within the bitter chilly and cramped situations that pressured her to hunch her shoulders to keep away from brushing up towards her co-workers.
To make issues worse, Stephanie’s supervisor would typically yell at her and her co-workers, she mentioned, and forbid them from talking to one another or utilizing the bathroom with out permission.
Two different Filipino ladies described comparable situations on the poultry manufacturing unit.
“Someday, I felt like I used to be about to break down,” Stephanie instructed Al Jazeera. “I couldn’t do this job.”
Stephanie’s experiences at two different jobs within the nation weren’t a lot better.
Whereas working at a manufacturing unit for plastic toolboxes, she needed to stroll for an hour every day to succeed in her lodging, she mentioned.
“It was very troublesome … since you are so drained after standing for 12 hours. Then it’s good to stroll for one hour. You simply don’t really feel your toes,” she mentioned, exhibiting a video of two staff trudging by means of a highway coated in snow.
Stephanie mentioned she was ultimately fired with out discover after taking three days off whereas sick.
She claimed she didn’t obtain her final month’s wage, after being instructed to signal a doc written in Polish that she later realised said that nothing was owed to her.
Considered one of her subsequent jobs was as a kitchen assistant in Warsaw, the place she labored with out a contract for about six months. Her month-to-month wage, paid in money, got here to about 3,500 zlotys ($875), she mentioned.
Stephanie mentioned her employers, who had promised to get her papers so as, then “ran away” with out paying her final two pay cheques.
Stephanie’s experiences are usually not remoted.
As a part of a year-long investigation, Al Jazeera spoke to 22 Filipino ladies working in Poland, nearly all of whom claimed to have suffered exploitation or unfair labour practices, together with wage theft and unreasonable wage deductions, illegal termination, passport confiscation, and being pressured to signal paperwork in a language they didn’t perceive.
Nearly all of the ladies reported receiving decrease salaries than promised by brokers who charged them recruitment charges as excessive as $5,000 – nicely above limits set by the Philippine authorities and likewise at odds with Polish rules.
Poland has recruited Filipino staff in giant numbers in recent times to fill labour shortages stemming from the nation’s speedy financial rise and ageing inhabitants.
Official information reveals that Polish authorities issued 29,154 work permits for Filipino staff final yr, up from 2,057 in 2018.
Filipino staff are amongst these at biggest danger of pressured labour in Poland, significantly in industries similar to agriculture and hospitality, in keeping with the newest Trafficking in Individuals report launched by the USA Division of State.
Mikołaj Pawlak, an affiliate professor of sociology on the College of Warsaw, mentioned the truth that staff’ visas and residence permits are sometimes linked to their employers creates an influence imbalance.
Whereas most can search for new jobs, Pawlak mentioned, not all staff are conscious of Polish legislation and people working in distant areas are prone to be extra weak.
“Nearly all of circumstances are usually not of trafficking, they contain harsh working situations … and precarious employment,” Pawlak instructed Al Jazeera.
“Nonetheless, [workers] consider they’re OK as a result of they evaluate it with what they confronted within the Philippines or the Gulf states,” Pawlak mentioned, including that some staff additionally maintain onto the concept of ultimately bringing their households to Poland.
‘I must be affected person’
Most staff who spoke to Al Jazeera shied away from submitting official complaints, saying they have been prepared to tolerate unfair labour practices so long as they weren’t bodily mistreated and will ship cash house.
A minimum of 10 ladies reported poor situations of their residing quarters, similar to an absence of heating and sharing a single rest room with two dozen different staff.
Some alleged that they have been denied fundamental freedoms, similar to having to tell their supervisors earlier than going out to purchase groceries or attending church.
Others mentioned that they had their passport withheld sooner or later or needed to pay 50 zlotys ($12.56) to their employer in the event that they missed a day of labor, practices which are included on the Worldwide Labour Group’s record of indicators of pressured labour.
Miriam* arrived in Poland in 2019, forsaking a job at an electronics firm in Taiwan, the place she obtained a wage of about $1,250 along with different perks.
Lured by guarantees of upper salaries, she paid about $5,000 to an employment company within the Philippines.
However since shifting to Poland, Miriam has confronted language limitations, harsh winters, and strenuous six-day workweeks.
At a automobile components manufacturing unit in southern Poland, Miriam earns 3,000 to 4,000 zlotys ($752 to $1,003) a month underneath a “mandate contract”, that means she doesn’t have paid days off or holidays, she instructed Al Jazeera.
Contained in the manufacturing unit, “we solely put on T-shirts. It’s too scorching as a result of we have to work quick”, she mentioned, including that she generally makes 1,500 plastic automobile components, similar to door handles, in a single day.
The 12 hours of standing are solely interrupted by two 20-minute each day breaks when Miriam eats white rice and smokes a cigarette – the “better part” of her day.
“I’ve no selection, so I must be affected person to earn and have a trip,” Miriam instructed Al Jazeera.
Rosalinda* shares her resolve.
After three years as a home employee in Hong Kong, she utilized on-line for a job in Poland in 2021.
Her first two jobs at meals processing vegetation, the place she made about 14 zlotys ($3.54) per hour, got here as a shock.
“I used to be so upset … It’s embarrassing. You pay massive cash, then you definitely solely get this,” she instructed Al Jazeera, including that she took a mortgage to cowl her placement charges.
Rosalinda, 51, then turned a mushroom picker, typically beginning at 7am and ending at 3am the next day.
“I felt very drained and sleepy … it’s harmful if you’re on the sixth degree,” she mentioned, referring to the cabinets the place mushrooms develop, which staff have to succeed in by standing on a shifting platform.
Rosalinda – who mentioned she was paid about 100 zlotys ($25) per day – ultimately stop the job after slipping on the greenhouse’s ground.
She mentioned the corporate didn’t present her with any help regardless that she was not in a position to stroll or sleep correctly for a couple of days.
“You remorse coming right here to Poland. However then you might be right here already, so you could discover a approach,” she mentioned. “You may’t lose hope.”
After a couple of months with out a legitimate visa or a secure job, choosing up work as a part-time dishwasher, pet carer, and cleaner, Rosalinda struck it fortunate when a Polish household employed her as a nanny in the summertime of 2022.
She was paid 45 zlotys ($11) per hour for eight hours of labor a day, had the weekends off, and ultimately obtained a Non permanent Resident Card.
At one level, Rosalinda dreamed that her employers may even help her nine-year-old son’s research in Poland.
However in current months, they’ve grown extra demanding, she mentioned.
“I’m overworked now … as a substitute of getting a relaxation day, they began asking me to work for 2 to a few hours,” Rosalinda mentioned.
Pawlak, the sociology professor, mentioned Filipinos are usually older and skew feminine in contrast with different migrant staff in Poland.
He mentioned some staff flip to Poland as “their second or third selection” resulting from being unable to satisfy the upper thresholds and age limits in Western international locations.
Most ladies interviewed by Al Jazeera arrived in Poland instantly from different common migrant employee locations, similar to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In line with a spokesman for Poland’s Ministry of International Affairs, from 2021 to November 2023, 2,980 visas for Filipinos have been processed in Hong Kong; 2,969 in Taiwan; and 1,006 within the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi.
The Philippine labour attache in Prague, Llewelyn Perez, who additionally handles circumstances involving staff in Poland, mentioned these migrating by way of companies accredited by Manila often get higher contracts and face fewer issues.
In any other case, “if there [are] violations of the labour settlement, I admit there’s very minimal energy or authority on [our] half”, Perez instructed Al Jazeera.
Though Philippine authorities forbid third-country recruitment, abroad staff typically can not afford to return house and wait till their purposes are concluded.
In line with Perez, her workplace dealt with 66 circumstances involving Filipino staff in Poland final yr.
Many of the claims are associated to non-payment or wage delays, lack of documentation for authorized keep, wrongful termination, and poor working and residing situations.
A spokesman for Poland’s Chief Labour Inspectorate mentioned it obtained 76 complaints from Filipino nationals between January 2021 and November 2023, 29 of which have been thought-about unfounded.
Along with conducting office inspections, the spokesman mentioned the inspectorate gives coaching for Filipinos in collaboration with the Philippine embassy in Poland.
In Warsaw, native specialists at La Strada, an anti-human trafficking non-profit, instructed Al Jazeera that Poland’s official constructions had not effectively responded to the rising variety of migrant staff and the challenges they confronted, including that courtroom circumstances involving human trafficking and compelled labour typically take years to be resolved.
Pawlak, the sociology professor, mentioned the earlier Polish authorities had peddled a destructive narrative round migration, regardless of the nation sorely needing overseas labour.
He mentioned he hopes that the brand new administration, elected in October, will revamp the system and develop a migration coverage that higher protects staff.
“The state ought to be a extra lively participant. Not lively within the sense of [having] stronger border police and fences on some components of the border, however extra lively in regulating migration and labour situations,” he mentioned.
Going through mounting stress in her nanny job, Rosalinda is weighing her choices.
For Miriam, the employee at a automobile components manufacturing unit, the precedence is to avoid wasting sufficient cash to see her household.
This previous Christmas was the fifth consecutive yr that she spent away from her teenage daughter and husband.
“I didn’t have any trip [since arriving in Poland], as a result of the aircraft ticket is dear and I’ve a really low wage,” Miriam mentioned.
Stephanie, who nonetheless remembers feeling “excited” about travelling to Europe, can not assist however assume that leaving her job in Hong Kong was a mistake.
After a yr and a half of pinning her hopes on Poland, she feels extra weak than ever.
Presently at a shelter with out a work visa and virtually no cash, Stephanie sees an unsure future.
“I’m unlawful now, it’s in all probability higher if I return to the Philippines,” she mentioned.
Raquel Carvalho reported from 9 areas throughout Poland with the help of the Journalismfund.eu
*Names modified to guard privateness.