US: OFWs will be safe in Iraq

The United States military in Iraq will ensure that Filipino workers there are safe even after the scheduled withdrawal in December of most of the US forces in that war-torn country, US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a judicial conference on human trafficking in Manila, Thomas said that while the number of US military forces in Iraq would be reduced by the end of the year, they would continue providing security.

“Remember our troops will be there in a smaller capacity so we will look at that. We will consistently assess the situation to ensure that anyone, all people, especially the Filipinos are safe and secure,” he said.

A delegation of Filipino diplomats is currently in Baghdad to study the possible reopening of the Philippine embassy there and the total lifting of the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq.

The Philippines has decided to allow OFWs who are already in Iraq to continue working there and even to renew their contracts.

However, the militant Migrante International migrants groups said the situation in Iraq was still too volatile for the government to totally lift the deployment ban.

“Basing on the reports we have been receiving on the ground from our fellow OFWs and linked nongovernment organizations, the peace and order situation in Iraq is still unstable as sporadic bombings and infightings are occurring,” said Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona.

He said the fighting between the US-backed Iraqi government and rebel groups was “still intense” with firefights and bombings still occurring “even in Baghdad and other major cities in Iraq.”

“With such a volatile peace and order situation in Iraq and most of US military forces leaving Iraq by December, we can almost foresee an escalation of the internal conflict in Iraq, thus lifting the ban on OFWs is not wise under such circumstances,” Monterona said.

He noted that the Department of Foreign Affairs last month stopped marking newly released passports with the warning “Not valid for travel to Iraq.”

“This is in line with the Aquino government’s plan to eventually lift OFWs deployment ban to Iraq so that it could continue to peddle OFWs labor cheap in clear disregard of OFWs’ safety and well-being,” Monterona said.

He warned that an intensified labor export program would not solve the problems of “unemployment, rampant OFWs abuse and labor malpractices and of broken OFW families,” which he said are the high social cost of forced migration.

<em>Originally posted at 01:17 pm | Thursday, September 22, 2011</em>