Baldoz: OFW deployment in Middle East unaffected by Iraqi Kurdistan travel ban

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Tuesday that the travel ban imposed on Iraqi Kurdistan has not affected the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East.

Baldoz said the demand of the labor market in other parts of the Middle East is still open and bigger than in Iraq.

“The deployment ban in Iraq has not affected our deployment of OFWs in other areas even as the demand remained higher,” Baldoz said at the sidelines of the awarding of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) accreditation to the regional office of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Zamboanga City. 

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) imposed the OFW deployment ban after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) recently raised crisis alert level 4 in Iraq, a level that calls for mandatory repatriation of all OFWs there.

The labor official said the agency is looking for other areas of deployment to help those who will be affected from the crisis in Iraq. Baldoz said the Saudi Arabian government is looking for the deployment of about 5,000 plus nurses to work there.

The labor chief said their regional office in Zamboanga City planned to encourage the Saudi government to coordinate and have a tie-up with various schools here to allow fresh graduates as possible candidates in the labor force after complying with all the necessary qualifications.

Baldoz said the DOLE has registered about half a million OFWs deployed in the Middle East countries which is just a portion of the 4 million OFWs deployed to at least 202 countries around the world.