Dole eyes review of OFW deployment ban to war-torn Libya

The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) is eyeing a review of the existing deployment ban of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Libya.

“We have an existing moratorium on sending our OFWs to Libya,” Labor Undersecretary Dominador Say said. “I want to have it reviewed because, according to Libyan nationals, there are areas of Libya that are already peaceful, like the oil fields which are protected by the military.”

Say said that about three weeks ago Libyan employers went to the labor department saying they were in need of Filipino workers, especially in oil companies.

“But I told them my hands are tied because we have an existing ban,” Say said. “But they insisted that, as far as the oil industry is concerned, it is safe because it is being protected by the Libyan military. But hospitals remain at high risk.”

“They need hundreds of Filipino workers,” he added. “They want Filipinos specifically because of their work attitude and their being fluent in English.”

To date, there’s a partial deployment ban of workers to Libya, which means only returning OFWs to Libya have been allowed to go to the war-torn country.

The POEA stopped the deployment of Filipino workers to Libya in 2011 due to heightened political unrest in there.

The deployment ban was lifted in 2012 and reimposed by the government in 2014. /atm