OFW ban stays until Iraq security improves

The ban on sending Filipino workers to war-torn Iraq remains in effect even after last month’s hostage drama was resolved successfully, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said there is no decision yet at the executive level whether to lift the suspension order on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Middle Eastern country.

"As of yesterday, that is still the status. Until the security situation in Iraq improves, the ban on deployment continues," Bunye said in a radio interview.

There are still more than 4,000 Filipinos who chose to stay in Iraq, Bunye pointed out.

The figure certainly outweighs the impact of the 200 OFWs who opted to take the repatriation offer by the government at the height of the hostage crisis involving truck driver Angelo de la Cruz.

Most of these 4,000 OFWs work inside military camps operated by the United States-led coalition forces, which special envoy retired Gen. Roy Cimatu classified as safe working places for now.

"So it’s important that we continue to review their (Iraq’s) security situation and give the appropriate protection to our countrymen," Bunye said.

"Our national interest requires that we protect the safety of our countrymen," he added.

There are 1.5 million OFWs in the Middle East, Bunye also pointed out. The deployment ban had been imposed last April when a Filipino driver was killed in an ambush.

It was lifted last July 1 but President Arroyo ordered its immediate reimposition after Iraqi insurgents kidnapped De la Cruz and threatened to behead him unless the Philippines withdrew its humanitarian contingent from Iraq.

Cimatu said on Saturday the Middle East Crisis Management Committee, which he heads, is still finalizing recommendations to the government on the lifting of the deployment ban.

He said the government is looking into several concerns, one of which is the apparent change in the strategy employed by Iraqi militants, who have targeted Christian churches for bomb attacks.

Cimatu said while suicide bombings in Iraq have subsided, the government is alarmed over the bombing of Christian churches.

Filipino workers remain in demand in Iraq. Most Arab employers who want to employ Filipinos are based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

There are about 6,100 unfilled job orders for Iraq as of this time, Philippine Overseas Employment Authority chief Rosalinda Baldoz said last week.

The Philippines received the job orders long before the government imposed the current ban, she said. The 6,000 job vacancies translate to some $102.48 million in wages the workers would have sent home, Baldoz added.

Local recruitment agencies earlier claimed the Philippines is losing at least $1.4 million in monthly income for Filipino workers because of the deployment ban on Iraq. They added that foreign employers are now recruiting workers from India and Nepal to fill up positions previously intended for Filipinos.

To prevent Filipino workers from missing more employment opportunities, local recruiters said they plan to file a petition asking the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to immediately lift the deployment ban. DOLE has maintained it will wait for government’s decision before taking any action.

The President, in her annual state of the nation address last July 26, vowed to protect the interests of the country’s estimated eight million overseas workers. She promised to generate up to 10 million jobs over the next six years to keep Filipinos at home, even as she acknowledged that their remittances were a huge boost to the economy.