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GMA Network
4 days ago
- GMA Network
Cyprus-based Filipino groups pledge safer online spaces
Over 80 Filipinos representing 22 diaspora communities in Cyprus attended a digital media literacy seminar in Nicosia to prevent cyberbullying and promote safe online spaces. Courtesy: Ester Beatty NICOSIA, Cyprus – Hotel housekeeping staff Lea Evangelou still recalls how she and her close friends felt worried after her Filipina colleague went missing. After several hours of searching, they found her wandering by the beach, seemingly distraught by the alleged bullying she faced on social media. Evangelou, a 55-year-old Filipina migrant worker who has lived in Cyprus for 33 years, told GMA Integrated News that this incident deeply affected her colleague and almost led to their hotel employer becoming involved in the investigation. This incident prompted her to encourage other community leaders to organize a digital media literacy seminar for Filipino migrants in Cyprus. After months of planning, the seminar took place on July 6 and drew over 80 Filipinos from 22 different civic and community organizations across the island nation. The activity was titled, "DigiPinoy: Safe and Ethical Social Media Use". "Para makahikayat kami sa mga OFW (overseas Filipino workers) na huwag gamitin sa harassment ang social media (The seminar was organized so we can encourage OFWs to refrain from using social media to harass others," Evangelou said. "Dahil sa social media, naise-share 'yung mga karanasan natin sa ibang bansa. Pero 'yung paninira, hindi maganda at lumalawak 'yan kasi." (Social media helps us share our experiences abroad. But bullying and speaking ill about others through the platform aren't good as they spread quickly.) Pinoys in Cyprus One of the seminar's co-organizers, 53-year-old businesswoman Valerie Badilla, has observed that most Filipino migrant workers in Cyprus use their off-days or vacation to make more money, leaving them with less time to mingle with other kababayans. "More often, a regular Filipino worker here earns up to EUR 400 (approximately P26,500) every month, while their counterparts in mainland Europe earn significantly more, between EUR 1,000 and EUR 1,500 (approximately P66,350 to P99,525). OFWs in Cyprus use their days off for gigs, which makes it difficult to maintain real-time and in-person connections," shared Badilla, a co-founder of Nicosia-based tech company Artemis Intelligence. "I lived and worked in Hong Kong and Singapore, and OFWs would gather every Sunday or on their day off to see friends. It helps in their community building." Badilla has observed that many Filipinos in Cyprus tend to post personal or community issues immediately on social media without reaching out to others, which has led to gossiping and bullying—including the incident Evangelou's friend faced. The seminar, Badilla shared, was their way not only to reintroduce digital media literacy to Filipinos in Cyprus but also to emphasize community building across different diaspora organizations. "At the DigiPinoy seminar, participants learned beyond just identifying misinformation and scams, but they were also encouraged to practice respectful and ethical social media engagement," Badilla said. "They were given concepts to help them recognize and prevent cyberbullying. Towards the end, the participants reflected on their own online habits to consider how their digital actions impact others." One of the seminar trainers, Michael Glaros, founder of the tech company that Badilla also co-founded, reminded participants to "uphold the Filipino values of respect and community" amid their constant connectivity. "A simple moment of reflection—asking if our words might harm or expose others—can help build a safer, kinder digital space for all," Glaros added. Maura De Vos, a psychology researcher on misinformation at the University of Central Lancashire, warned participants about the risks associated with manipulated content. "For the Filipino diaspora, especially those far from home, the digital world offers a lifeline—but it also brings risks," De Vos said. "By pausing, questioning, and relying on evidence over emotion, we become more resilient." Promoting digital safety At the close of the seminar, all 22 participating groups presented personalized commitments to promote a safer online environment. These included pledges to verify information before sharing, avoid spreading harmful content, and encourage constructive online dialogue. "We commit to shaping safer, kinder digital spaces—starting today," the groups declared in a unified statement. Organizers said the pledge symbolized not only digital responsibility but also a renewed sense of cultural integrity and leadership within the Filipino community in Cyprus. The organizers shared that DigiPinoy was the first in a series of community-led education initiatives aimed at empowering Filipinos in Cyprus. Evangelou added that she would continue pushing for similar digital media literacy seminars and community-building activities to strengthen Filipino migrants in the island nation. "Kailangang maulit muli para hindi mawala yung spirit na sinimulan namin. May mga OFW kasi na ginagamit sa maling bagay ang social media. Dapat iwasan 'yun dahil nakakasira ng buhay, tulad ng nangyari sa kasamahan ko," Evangelou said. (This event should be repeated so its spirit of what we started won't be lost. There are OFWs who social media for the wrong things. This should be avoided because it can affect other people's lives, just like what happened to my colleague. "'Yang pambu-bully sa social media, nagiging dahilan kung bakit naii-stress at nade-depress ang ibang tao. Ayaw ko namang mangyari 'yun, kasi hindi naman lahat ng gumagamit ng social media ay matapang o malakas ang loob. Mayroong ibang mahina at dinidibdib ang ginagawa sa kanilang pambu-bully." (Social media bullying is also a reason why others get stressed or depressed. I don't want that to happen because not many people can deal with social media bullying. Others get affected more easily.) — VDV, GMA Integrated News
NBC News
26-06-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Court orders Costa Rican government to release Asian migrants deported by Trump
Costa Rica's Constitutional Court on Tuesday ordered the government of Rodrigo Chaves to release Asian migrants deported by the Trump administration who have been held in a temporary shelter in the south of the Central American country since February. The majority vote (4-3) of the justices found that the Costa Rican government violated the migrants' rights by failing to provide them with 'timely and sufficient information' about their immigration status or give them access to legal counsel. 'Nor was free contact with the media permitted, nor was there any information from the outset about the possibility of requesting asylum,' the constitutional court said in a statement. The judges gave the Costa Rican government 15 days to release the deported migrants and ordered it to determine their immigration status 'individually' and based on the law, according to the statement. In February, the Donald Trump administration sent 200 Asian migrants to Costa Rica on two deportation flights, including nearly 100 children. The deportees came from countries such as China, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Russia, and Uzbekistan. More than 70 were minors. The agreement between the two countries was reached as Costa Rica feared that President Donald Trump would retaliate if it refused to accept the migrants, according to statements made to the press by the president and the foreign minister. The deportees were immediately taken to the Temporary Migrant Care Center (CATEM), located in the canton of Corredores, seven miles from the border with Panama. They slept cramped in shared, poorly ventilated bunks in a hot, humid region where temperatures often exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit. As of Tuesday, 28 people remained deported, including 13 minors, from Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Iran, Omer Badilla, Costa Rica's Deputy Minister of the Interior and Police, told Noticias Telemundo. The vast majority of the deportees, 107, were repatriated to their countries of origin. Another 35 left the center on their own, and 30 requested asylum in Costa Rica, Badilla said. Costa Rican authorities described the Constitutional Court's ruling as a 'serious error' and assert that the migrants still there 'enjoy complete freedom; they can leave and move freely,' according to Badilla. '(The constitutional ruling) makes no sense. For months, these people have had regular immigration status and complete freedom of movement,' the official said. "From our perspective, the Constitutional Court is mistaken and making a serious error. It clearly doesn't understand the current situation at CATEM,' he added. The constitutional ruling responds to a habeas corpus petition against the Costa Rican government filed by the country's former Minister of Communications, Mauricio Herrera. In late April, Costa Rica granted humanitarian immigration status to the migrants held at the shelter after a group of human rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against the country before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, alleging that the government violated the rights of 81 migrant minors by detaining them at the shelter without legal counsel or access to education or psychological services. At the time, Costa Rican authorities announced that the migrants, whose passports were confiscated upon arrival in the country, would receive their documents back and were free to leave the shelter and seek options to leave Costa Rica or seek asylum if they so desired. In April, Noticias Telemundo visited CATEM and spoke with some of the migrants, including 36-year-old Russian German Smirnov, who was deported with his wife and 6-year-old son. The man, originally from St. Petersburg, said he worked in his country as an electoral official and witnessed how elections were manipulated in Russia. He said he sought out the organization of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Siberian prison in 2024, to report fraud in the 2024 elections, but authorities under Vladimir Putin's regime discovered him. ["If I return to Russia] they'll put me in jail or send me to war. It's simple, because my country is at war with a neighboring country,' he said. Help the powerful brother of the north In announcing the agreement with the United States, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said the country was helping its 'economically powerful brother to the North' and indicated that they feared punishment if they did not accept the migrants. 'If they impose a tax on our free trade zones, they'll screw us,' Chaves said. 'I don't think they'll do it, thank God... love is repaid with love... 200 come, we treat them well, and they leave...' he stated at a press conference. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo André Tinoco also expressed the country's fear of Trump's 'pressure,' although he denied that it had materialized. 'What the president [Rodrigo Chaves] meant was that, through a gesture of goodwill, we would somewhat alleviate the pressure if the United States were thinking of imposing some kind of restriction that doesn't interest us. Of course, we're not interested,' André said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo in late March. 'There's no pressure. Possibility? Of course it exists. Yes. Look at what the new US administration is doing around the world [...] You're not going to get me to say that I was pressured by the United States because that's not true,' he asserted.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Job program for the formerly incarcerated tackles trucking industry shortage
New York City — Every time Jorge Badilla shifts into gear, he's sitting in the driver's seat of an industry that's running on fumes. According to the American Trucking Association, the industry is currently facing a shortage of about 60,000 drivers. With each mile, the 48-year-old Badilla is filling a critical need and mapping out a future he never thought he'd have. "I have an opportunity to do something positive for my life," Badilla told CBS News. "It feels great to be free." Freedom is especially meaningful to Badilla, who spent nearly a decade in federal prison for selling drugs from a housing project in New York City's Queens borough. "The FBI agent had his gun pointed to my face," Badilla said of his arrest. "...I didn't see the daylight for the next nine years." While in prison, Badilla earned his GED diploma. And while getting out of prison may have been the end of his sentence, it was the beginning of a different kind of struggle. "When you come out of prison, you feel like all the doors are locked," Badilla said. "Nobody wants to give you a job." Nationwide, six out of every 10 formerly incarcerated people are still jobless four years after getting out of prison, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Close to 70% will end up back in prison, according to numbers from the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, a problem called recidivism. Badilla said that while in prison, seeing "a lot" of ex-felons who were rearrested "also helped me wake up." Following his release, Badilla entered the Commercial Driver's License Workforce Development Program, a pilot program that is a partnership between the New York City's Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, and Emerge Career, a tech company, that trains formerly incarcerated people who are considered low-risk for trucking jobs. It helps them get a commercial driver's license and connects them with trucking companies in states across the U.S. For incarcerated people who participate in initiatives that combine education and job training, the odds of returning to prison drop by 43%, according to a 2013 study by the nonprofit research group RAND. "When you put more barriers in somebody's pathway, they don't see a way to actually make an honest living and that doesn't benefit them, but it also really doesn't benefit society," Deanna Logan, director of the Mayor's Office for Criminal Justice, told CBS News. "They paid their debt to society and now they need to come back." Logan said the trucking industry provides a promising on-ramp to the labor market while filling a critical need in the American supply chain. "We looked at what was lucrative and accessible to people who are coming back from incarceration," Logan said. "We don't have enough people who are skilled, and it's a very skilled gave [the formerly incarcerated] a really big opportunity to be part of the communities that they knew they did harm to." While the program may raise eyebrows for some New Yorkers who are skeptical of how their taxpayer dollars are being spent, Logan pointed to the impact of giving formerly incarcerated people a second chance to help drive the economy in their communities. "If I have you incarcerated on Rikers, I have to pay for [the] facility, the officers, the food," she said. "Whereas, when I take a person and give them opportunity, they pay taxes. So now, we as a society are getting taxpayer revenue from a person that is not in a box on a shelf." Emerge Career co-founder Uzoma "Zo" Orchingwa said the program is rooted in the belief that people coming out of prison are often undervalued and underestimated. "Our people are just looking for someone that believes in them and someone that can give them a legit chance," Orchingwa told CBS News. "These are people that — for the most part — have not had a fair shot for being able to be successful and contributing citizens. They just need that one opportunity that's going to support them." In the 2024 fiscal year, 94% of participants in the training program graduated, according to data provided by Emerge Career. All of those graduates received job offers with an average starting salary of $75,000 per year, the company said. Since the trucking program launched, 260 formerly incarcerated people have completed it. Orchingwa emphasized that the training program provides its participants with more than just a paycheck, but a sense of purpose. "When folks are getting access to job opportunities and income, they're going to stay out of prison," Orchingwa said. Badilla described the freedom he now has, to drive anywhere, to that of a bird. "A bird is free," he said. Watch: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked what habeas corpus is in Senate hearing Watch: Rubio and Van Hollen get into testy exchange during Senate hearing Rubio interrupted at Senate hearing during remarks on changes at State Department
NBC News
24-04-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Costa Rica grants special status to 85 migrants deported from the U.S.
Costa Rica granted 85 migrants, who were deported in February by the Trump administration, a special status that will allow them to freely move within the country, the country's immigration director, Omar Badilla, said on Wednesday. President Rodrigo Chaves' government agreed with the Trump administration at the start of the year that it would receive up to 200 people originating from Africa, Asia, and Europe with a goal to repatriate them within weeks. However, two months later Costa Rican authorities confirmed that not all of the migrants had accepted repatriation, to which the government responded by issuing a resolution on Monday with a special migratory category valid for 90 days, with an option to extend. 'These people have freedom of movement anywhere within the country ... the point of this resolution is to not force anybody to return to their country of origin,' said Badilla in a video shared with the press. Since February, when they were set up in a shelter near the Panamanian border, the migrants have been restricted from leaving and were not given access to passports. Most accepted repatriation, Reuters confirmed with immigration authorities. Still, 85 migrants of 14 different nationalities, and including 31 minors, remain on Costa Rican soil. All of them may now recover their passports, Badilla said. The new resolution defends the rights of migrants to 'feel comfortable in Costa Rica,' according to Badilla. The move comes after a group of human rights lawyers sued Costa Rica for allegedly violating the rights of dozens of minors by detaining them in camps for two months following their deportations from the United States.
Reuters
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Costa Rica grants special status to 85 migrants deported from the US
April 23 (Reuters) - Costa Rica granted 85 migrants, who were deported in February by the Trump administration, a special status that will allow them to freely move within the country, the country's immigration director, Omar Badilla, said on Wednesday. President Rodrigo Chaves' government agreed with the Trump administration at the start of the year that it would receive up to 200 people originating from Africa, Asia, and Europe with a goal to repatriate them within weeks. However, two months later Costa Rican authorities confirmed that not all of the migrants had accepted repatriation, to which the government responded by issuing a resolution on Monday with a special migratory category valid for 90 days, with an option to extend. "These people have freedom of movement anywhere within the country ... the point of this resolution is to not force anybody to return to their country of origin," said Badilla in a video shared with the press. Since February, when they were set up in a shelter near the Panamanian border, the migrants have been restricted from leaving and were not given access to passports. Most accepted repatriation, Reuters confirmed with immigration authorities. Still, 85 migrants of 14 different nationalities, and including 31 minors, remain on Costa Rican soil. All of them may now recover their passports, Badilla said. The new resolution defends the rights of migrants to "feel comfortable in Costa Rica," according to Badilla. The move comes after a group of human rights lawyers sued Costa Rica for allegedly violating the rights of dozens of minors by detaining them in camps for two months following their deportations from the United States. Costa Rican authorities deny having violated the rights of foreigners and say they are only trying to help the United States.
