MANILA, Philippines — The government has stopped the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Ethiopia due to the peace and order problem in the African country.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) imposed the deployment ban as the Department of Foreign Affairs raised the status to Alert Level 4 in Ethiopia.
Alert Level 4 means evacuation and mandatory repatriation due to the escalating conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the federal government of Ethiopia.
The POEA said the deployment ban was imposed to protect the welfare of Filipino workers.
The Philippine embassies in Cairo and Egypt are coordinating the repatriation of OFWs in Ethiopia, according to the POEA.
There are about 800 OFWs in Ethiopia.