OFW deployment to exceed 1 million

The number of Filipino workers deployed overseas this year is expected to exceed one million for the first time despite the slowdown of hiring in some countries, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said yesterday.

Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Brion said the government is only about 8,500 short of its one million OFW deployment target for the year.

"Based on POEA data, we are only 8,539 short of our target so we could easily reach or even exceed one million deployment because we deploy an average of 2,500 workers everyday," Brion said.

Brion noted that as of Nov. 20, a total of 991,461 Filipino workers were deployed to various countries abroad. The figure is 11 percent higher than the recorded deployment of 893,073 in the same period last year.

Brion said the country recorded continuing growth in overseas deployment this year despite the slowdown in hiring of Filipino workers in Taiwan, Japan and Lebanon.

The country banned the deployment of Filipino workers to Lebanon at the height of the war between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in July this year while deployment to Japan dramatically dropped due to the country’s new immigration rules.

Japan and Lebanon are among the top 10 destinations of land-based Filipino workers for the past years with Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong topping the list.

Last year the POEA processed more than a million contracts for overseas employment but only 963,115 were actually deployed.

Mrs. Arroyo has pledged to generate one million overseas employment annually.