Ban on deployment to 41 countries hit

A recruitment expert on Friday backed Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario’s call on the labor department to defer the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to 41 countries with no adequate laws that protect migrant laborers.

Emmanuel Geslani, a consultant of several Manila-based recruitment agencies, said the ban was “ill-timed and ill-advised taking into consideration the current world recession where millions are unemployed in parts of the world.”

“By banning the deployment of our workers to these countries, we are preventing them from gaining gainful employment and a better chance to improve their lives,” he added.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, an agency attached to the labor department, announced the ban early this week.

The 41 countries were found not to be compliant with the requirements set by Republic Act No. 10122 that OFW-host countries should have adequate protection measures for foreign migrant workers.

The 41 included five that were already covered by a total or partial ban issued in previous years. These include Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, Nigeria and Afghanistan.

Geslani chided POEA administrator Carlos Cao Jr. for downplaying the effects of the ban by saying that those countries are small markets and the deployment to those countries is limited.

“It seems that Mr. Cao is misinformed on his data since Libya where over 17,000 Filipinos were working before the onset of the Libya revolution is no small market. The POEA has been deploying OFWs there for the past 45 years,” he said.

More than 10,000 Filipinos working in hospitals, oil fields and refineries in Libya were repatriated in early 2011 and many of them wanted to return to their former jobs after the National Transitional Council took over from the regime of ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

“They were reassured by their employers that their positions are still open and that in a few months these oil fields and refineries will be resuming operations to fuel the economic policies of the NTC,” he said.

He added that the inclusion of Libya on the list of noncompliant countries might result in the OFWs sneaking to the North African country illegally. “Ban or no ban our OFWs from Libya are determined to return as they have waited eight months to work again in Libya,” he added.