OFWs in US bases in Afghanistan can stay

MANILA, Philippines—The US military command in Afghanistan has allowed overseas Filipino workers  already there to extend their job contracts after Manila partially lifted its ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to that war-torn country, the migrant group Filipinos in Afghanistan (FIA) said Saturday.

Emmanuel Geslani, FIA spokesperson, said both the United States and the Nato military commands have  allowed the estimated 6,000 Filipinos to renew their contracts to work in Afghanistan.

“Upon receipt of the official memo sent by the Philippine embassy in Pakistan… lifting the partial ban for Filipinos working inside US facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Central Command issued memos authorizing the continued stay of the Filipinos in the bases,” Geslani said in a statement.

“FIA members welcomed the official memo sent (on September 6) and thanked the embassy …(for) issuing the official memo to the US so that the Filipinos working with private contractors will be allowed to work in the bases,” he said.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) earlier recommended the partial lifting of the ban on deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq by allowing OFWs already in those countries to continue working there and to renew their job contracts.

However, new workers would still not be allowed to go these countries, the POEA said.

Majority of the 6,000 OFWs in Afghanistan work in the Bagram and Kandahar airfields, doing maintenance and logistics work for the 120,000 US troops and another 40,000 troops from Nato countries stationed at these bases.

Geslani said OFWs working in US facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan who went home for vacations to the Philippines had started streaming into the POEA’s Balik-Mangagawa section to get their travel documents for their return to Afghanistan via Dubai.

However, Geslani said, several OFWs bound for Afghanistan were surprised when they were asked to produce a Dubai visa.

“This new requirement from the chief evaluator at the Balik-Mangagawa section is not needed by those Afghanistan OFWs as they are just transiting through the Dubai airport and do not enter immigration counters,” Geslani said.

“Their transport planes are at departure gates well within the transit area in that airport… The chief evaluator is either misinformed or just making it harder for our OFWs to secure their (travel documents),” he added.

Geslani said he would meet with POEA Administrator Carlos Cao Jr. on Monday to clarify the matter.