Stand with Marichu Baoanan and DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association to demand justice and an end to trafficking and modern-day slavery!

What: Justice for Marichu Community Speak-out
When: Friday, August 1, 2008
Time: 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Where: In front of the Philippine Consulate, 556 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Directions: 7 train to 5th Avenue-Bryant Park, F/V/D/B to 47-50 Rockefeller Center. Walk to 5th Avenue between 45th & 46th Street

Last June 24, Marichu Baoanan filed a civil lawsuit of 15 counts (including trafficking, forced labor, peonage and slavery) against her former employers, UN Ambassador to the Philippines Lauro Baja, his wife Norma Baja, and their daughter Maria "Beth" Facundo.

According to the lawsuit, Marichu was trafficked to the US by the Bajas and worked as a domestic worker in the Baja household for approximately three months, where she was forced to work at least 18 hours a day, seven days a week, with no days off, for merely $100—approximately 6 cents per hour. Labaire International Travel, Inc, owned by the Bajas, is also a defendant in the case for allegedly facilitating Marichu's travel from Manila to New York.

Invoking diplomatic immunity, the Bajas have asked the court to dismiss the charges.

Filipina domestic workers, allies and supporters will speak out on Friday, August 1 against the Bajas' use of diplomatic immunity and to demand that they be held accountable for their actions. The speak-out will also call for Phil. Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration and the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to conduct a full investigation of the Bajas, and will support the demand of Marichu for her unpaid wages and a public apology from the Bajas for violating her human dignity and subjecting her to involuntary servitude.

Sign the online petition to support Marichu and help end human trafficking and modern-day slavery: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/justice-for-marichu-end-trafficking.html
For campaign updates: http://endtrafficking.blogspot.com

Justice for Marichu!
End trafficking of Filipino women workers!
End modern-day slavery!
Down with graft and corruption!