A 45 year old man was sentenced to 7.5 years in jail at this Stavanger Courthouse for rape of 2 Filipina au pairs.
OSLO - The Au Pair Center in Oslo welcomed the verdict of the Stavanger court sentencing a 45-year-old Norwegian man to 7 and a half years in jail and to pay 200,000 kroners (approximately P1.4 million) in damages to one of his victims.
"It is good and important (that such sentence was handed down). It is difficult enough to get a verdict in cases such as these," Magnhild Otnes, leader of Au Pair Center Oslo told ABS-CBN Europe in a phone interview.
Hopefully, she said, "This case will make the people aware of how the au pair arrangement works and how vulnerable the au pairs find themselves in their work situation," she added.She also pointed out that it is important to understand the au pairs' situation, their feelings, their dependence (on their host families) and their helplessness from not being able to resist force or get out of the situation.
January Mateo, a Filipino au pair working for a Norwegian host family in Ekeberg in Oslo also welcomed the decision saying she and her other au pair friends think the sentence was "well-deserved."
"Nagbigay boost ito sa aming pagtitiwala sa justice system (sa Norway)," Mateo added.
She also said that the case is "a good example" for the au pairs so that "di sila dapat matakot magsumbong."
Filipino au pairs in Norway are reluctant to go to the police to complain against their host families for fear that they will not be believed by authorities.
The Norwegian man who was found guilty of rape and human trafficking told the Stavanger court in a report from Stavanger Aftenbladet that the charges filed against him were false and that the Filipino au pairs who filed a case against him are only out to get back at him and avoid paying back the loans they owed him.
Explaining why the au pairs like herself think twice about filing complaints, Mateo said most Filipina au pairs doubt if the authorities will be on their side.
"Di namin ito bansa, ano na lang ang laban namin?" she added.
Au pair Center legal adviser Marit Vik also confirmed the reluctance on the part of the au pairs who find themselves in difficult situations to tell their stories to the center or even seek legal redress.
She said that every time they handle a case involving au pairs, she has to coax them to open up to her and that they usually say that they "are only Filipinos" and express doubt that their cases will even be heard in court.
While she thinks that au pair cases and convictions on abuse of the au pair arrangement come out in the media, she also said that what is more important is for the au pairs to have better protection under the present arrangement.
"It is important to eliminate the vulnerability that the au pairs find themselves under this arrangement," Vik pointed out.
She also said that there are two vulnerabilities regarding the au pairs in Norway. One is that the arrangement ties the au pairs' resident permits to their host families making it difficult for them to remain in the country, and that the hefty sum of P17,500 (2,500 kroners) that they have to pay if they choose to change their host families.
An au pair gets P35,000 (5,000 kroners) monthly allowance from their host families. Another is the loyalty of the au pairs, especially the Filipinos, to their families back home.
More often than not, the au pairs are willing to tolerate miserable conditions such as long hours of work so that they can stay in the country and send money to their families in the Philippines.
The Au Pair Center in Oslo which opened in January this year provides assistance to au pairs and their host families and is an initiative of the Ministry of Justice and the Directorate of Immigration (UDI). It is run by the Norwegian People's Aid and the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees.
It is estimated that there are around 4,000-5,000 Filipino au pairs in Norway and 90% of visas issued by the Directorate of Immigration to au pairs are given to Filipinos.
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