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A 23-year-old Filipino housemaid, who has been subjected to indecent proposal and attempted rape by her employer in Ras Al Khaimah, sought help through Facebook and took refuge at the Overseas Filipino Resource Centre (OFRC) of the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai on Tuesday night.

C. Dumo, who reached Dubai in March 2012, ran away from her employer after a rape attempt on May 9.

“My Madam was out. My employer asked me to check on his one-year-old daughter who was sleeping in their room. I went there but he followed me, closed the door and hugged me. I fought back, but he slapped me many times, picked me up and threw me on the floor. I became very scared but I did not lose my senses. I got the chance to open the door and leave. He tried to pull me back to the room but with God’s help I was able to run away fast,” she said.

She said her Emirati employer threatened to put her to jail if she would tell anyone of what had happened. “There was no way to leave the place but I found time to call my sister-in-law, who is working in Kuwait, for help. She put my plea on the Facebook, which caught like wildfire. Through the number she provided on Facebook, a certain Filipino who introduced herself as Ate Maribel called me up and came forward to help me on May 14.

At that time, Dumo’s ‘madam’ was in the house with her two kids. Dumo got out in the pretext of throwing garbage and ran away as Ate Maribel came and helped her into a taxi. The driver was instructed to take her to a certain place, where she was picked up by a car that took her to the Philippine Consulate in Dubai.

Welfare Officer Maybelle Gorospe, who is in charge of her case, said the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) already assigned the diplomatic post’s Syrian PRO, who made contact with her employer and recruitment agency as she did not want to file a case against her employer.

“I just want to go home and be with my husband and three-year-old son,” she said.

Gorospe said that she and the other POLO officials received Dumo at the OFRC for migrant workers on Tuesday night. “She is traumatised but stable. She does not want to file a case against her employer. She just wants to go back to her family in Isabela North of Manila, Philippines.”

Dumo said just a few months after she arrived in RAK, her employer started offering her an indecent proposal, luring her to accept him as lover and, in exchange for which he would give her a mobile and money. “I told him that I came to work and not to cheat my husband. He then stopped making indecent proposals until May 9 when he tried to rape her.”

Eliese Pua Palilio, creator of community group Tropang Walang Iwanan, posted a picture of Dumo on Facebook with an appeal for help on Monday. The plea, which was shared 5,207 times on the Facebook ended up with the plea: “To all OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) in the UAE, please help us notify the embassy.”

Gorospe said that the POLO through its PRO will try to retrieve Dumo’s passport and secure air ticket to send her home.

Filipinos in the UAE who need help can call the consulate’s helpline on 056 273 2611.