Lift deployment ban on Iraq, 3 others
Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—Amid the global financial crisis threatening to cause a drop in labor deployment and subsequently of the dollar remittances of overseas Filipino workers, the government should lift the deployment ban on war-torn Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Lebanon to spur more jobs abroad, a recruiter said Monday.
In a statement e-mailed to media outfits, Jackson Gan, vice president of the Federated Association of Manpower Exporters, said the Department of Labor and Employment and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration should consider the normalized situation in Iraq, which has some 30,000 potential jobs available for Filipinos.
He noted that the Iraqi government has allocated $15 billion for the reconstruction of damaged roads, highways, bridges, and power plants.
The ban on the deployment to Iraq has been in force since July 2004 after truck driver Angelo Dela Cruz was kidnapped for a ransom by Iraqi militants.
“Life is normal now in many cities of Iraq and [its] government [is set to] seal a security pact with the United States providing for a slow withdrawal of US forces till 2011,” Gan said, adding that US President-elect Barrack Obama has urged for a faster removal of
American troops from the war-torn Gulf state.
In Beirut and other cities of Lebanon, Gan said, some 25,000 OFWs live and work with their employers as the country grows more stable after Israel bombed parts of the country in its war against the Hezbollah in 2007.
The recruiter said that as a way to dodge the ban, many undocumented OFWs are sneaking into Lebanon from neighboring Syria.
Labor deployment to Lebanon plunged by 95 percent from a high of 9,700 in 2006 to less than 480 OFWs in 2007 due to the ban.
In Nigeria and Afghanistan, Gan urged Special Envoy Roy Cimatu, head of the Presidential Task Force Preparedness Team to the Middle East, to quickly assess the political and security situation in these two countries so that the labor department may be appropriately informed and may act accordingly.
Gan said the global financial crisis is beginning to show in fewer job orders for factory workers, domestic helpers, and semi-skilled workers in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Brunei.
He said he expects the deployment slowdown to continue until 2010.
Earlier, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque warned that the slump in tourism, including sea-based tourism, may affect the 47,782 of the 226,900 seafarers recruited for international cruise ships in 2007.
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