DOLE lifts Qatar deployment ban for returning OFWs
Despite a temporary suspension of the deployment of Filipino workers to Qatar by the Labor Department on Tuesday, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) queue up at Qatar Airways check-in counter for the scheduled flight to Doha Wednesday, June 7, 2017, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay city, southeast of Manila, Philippines. The Philippine government temporarily suspended the deployment of Filipino workers to Qatar, fearing food riots and other potential problems amid the diplomatic crisis gripping the tiny Gulf nation, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said. AP/Bullit Marquez
MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Wednesday announced that the moratorium on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Qatar has been lifted.
The lifting of the deployment ban covers OFWs returning to Qatar and those who were directly hired to work there.
Those set for deployment and those who are still undergoing processing are still covered by the deployment ban, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Bello said that the agency is continuously monitoring the situation in Doha. He added that the Qatari government gave an assurance that Filipinos there will be protected.
"[A hundred and one] percent ang kanilang assurance na they guarantee the safety of our OFWs... There will be no food shortage. In fact, they said, in this letter there is an oversupply of food," Bello said in a press briefing.
The DOLE secretary added that the country's labor attaché in Qatar has a contingency plan for any eventuality, including repatriation.
Six Arab nations including Saudi Arabia and Egypt together with the Maldives have severed diplomatic relations and cut off air, land and sea access to Qatar, in the most serious Gulf diplomatic crisis since the 1991 war against Iraq.
President Rodrigo Duterte met in April with King Salman in Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of thousands of Filipinos work as nurses, domestic helpers, drivers, waiters and technicians. Duterte's visit was aimed at boosting Saudi investments in the Philippines and strengthening ties with the Middle East heavyweight.
He also visited Qatar and Bahrain during the trip. The region is home to the largest group of Filipinos working overseas. More than 1 million Filipinos reside and work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. - Patricia Lourdes Viray with Associated Press
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