OFW redeployment in Iraq proposed

Special envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu recommended to the government yesterday that Filipino workers be redeployed in selected areas in Iraq where their security could be guaranteed.

Cimatu said Filipinos could work in the three biggest US military camps in Iraq, provided US authorities agree to boost the workers’ security. These are Camp Victory in Baghdad, Camp Anaconda in Balad and Camp Taji, located between the two cities.

Cimatu said that despite the security situation, demand for Filipino workers in US bases in Iraq was very high.

"They are in fact asking us for some 700 workers next week," he said.

However, Cimatu said the government should continue to ban Filipinos from working as truck drivers in Iraq because it was difficult to guarantee their security.

Cimatu said many Filipinos employed in US military camps were housed in vulnerable areas, near perimeter fences.

He had asked US military camp commanders to move the Filipinos to safer areas, he added.

The government had earlier halted the deployment of workers to Iraq after a Filipino truck driver was killed in a roadside bombing last April, and a worker in Camp Anaconda was killed in a guerrilla mortar attack earlier this month.

More than 3,000 Filipino civilians already work in Iraq, although the government has been helping in the repatriation of workers who feel it is no longer safe to stay there.

There is also a 51-member Filipino military and police contingent serving under the US-led occupation in central Iraq.

On the other hand, Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. said Cimatu’s recommendation contradicted his earlier statement that not all Filipinos in US military camps in Iraq are safe.

"How can the military bases be classified as safe when they are the targets of suicide bombings and mortar attacks?" he asked.

"The government should remain firm in its resolve to suspend the deployment of OFWs to Iraq until the peace and order situation improves."

Villar, chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations, said the hostilities toward US occupation forces and their allies may intensify following the exposé on the abuses committed by American soldiers against Iraqi prisoners of war.

"Even military camps are no longer safe," he said. "A number of OFWs have been killed and injured in different military camps."

Iraq is no longer safe for Filipino workers and troops, he added.

Meanwhile, members of Migrante International, a militant alliance of overseas Filipinos, held a rally recently in front of the US embassy in Manila to condemn the American and British occupation of Iraq.

"As President Bush’s cosmetic packaging of his immoral invasion of Iraq crumbles, we reiterate and stand firm on our position of how this has been an illegal war of aggression, and now occupation," said Maita Santiago, Migrante International secretary-general.

"Bush’s web of lies and half-truths that propelled the world into an immoral war are fast unraveling — even from within the US military, the ugly face of war is surfacing."

By knowingly ignoring human rights and the ban on torture, Bush has been unmasked for his duplicity, she added. — AFP