Mary Jane Veloso is free after 16 years of detention! Migrant rights are human rights!

Malaya Movement USA celebrates the long awaited freedom of Mary Jane Veloso, a overseas Filipino worker (OFW), who was wrongfully convicted by the Indonesian government in 2010 for drug trafficking and then sentenced to death.

Veloso’s family alongside civil society groups and advocates in the Philippines and across the world pressured the Philippine government to intervene and delay the execution in 2015. Veloso remained in prison in Indonesia and was repatriated to the Philippines in 2024 to serve the rest of her sentence.

Veloso never lost hope. Her campaign achieved victory when Veloso was granted an absolute pardon by President Marcos Jr. this past week. But Marcos should have granted this pardon in 2024 and not wait until it was politically beneficial for him to do so.

Veloso’s campaign represents the struggle of Filipino migrant workers. Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s Labor Code of 1974 systematized the export of the country’s workforce, and for decades, countless migrants have been tricked and trafficked by predatory employers. In too many cases, the Philippine government has neglected the plight of their overseas nationals.

As an organization that fights for human rights, Malaya Movement USA recognizes that migrant rights are also human rights. Mary Jane Veloso inspires our current campaigns to free migrants from ICE detention and to demand accountability for victims of trafficking and wage theft.

Let us celebrate Veloso’s return home and uphold the dignity and rights of all Filipino migrants.