Gov’t urged to strengthen OFW protection after upgrade of list of safe countries

MANILA, Philippines – The government should strengthen protection for overseas Filipino workers following its decision to add 32 more countries in its list of territories that meet Philippine standards on the protection of its Filipino workers, Senator Loren Legarda said Wednesday.

“The job of our government does not end with certifying countries as safe havens for our OFWs. The more countries our government certifies as OFW-safe destinations, the better it be prepared to address contingencies that may face our OFWs,” said Legarda. The lady senator is the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

So far, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has certified 184 countries that were found compliant with the standards on the protection of the rights of foreign workers as provided under Section 2 of Republic Act 10022 or the Amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act. The latest list of approved countries also includes Syria which is still under civil unrest.

“The OFW-friendly tag being associated with these certified countries should not lull our government into complacency. These countries may have progressive migrant-labor policies, but at the end of the day, the responsibility of our government is not diminished by the presence of favorable policies in the host country,” she added, Legarda noted cases particularly in countries in the Middle East under civil unrest wherein massive government resources are need to evacuate OFWs to safer areas.

Likewise, Legarda said that being included in the list of certified countries should not automatically mean that deployment of OFWs will be allowed. She said that the current situation in these countries and the possible risks for Filipino employees should be the basis for the government’s decision to allow deployment of OFWs.

The government estimates that there are more or less eight million Filipinos working overseas and that overseas deployment of workers continues to increase.

Legarda added that the government should also work on protecting Filipinos aspiring to work abroad from illegal recruiters.

“Our government should also be on the lookout for unscrupulous recruiters that might use these certified countries as staging grounds for the deployment of workers to countries covered by deployment ban,” the Senator added.

“We certainly should not put our OFWs in harm’s way by allowing their deployment to countries where there is on-going civil strife,” Legarda said.

Meanwhile, Legarda said she will study the level of preparedness of pertinent government agencies in addressing emergencies and crisis that OFWs may face abroad. She added that the upcoming budget deliberations will open the opportunity to examine programs and services, including contingency measures, that the government provides to OFWs.

“I will certainly look into this,” the Senator said.

On Tuesday, the POEA revealed its list of compliant countries which was duly approved by the POEA Governing Board.

The 32 new countries are as follows:

1.      Algeria

2.      Bahrain

3.      Bangladesh

4.      Bhutan

5.      Botswana

6.      China

7.      Dominican Republic

8.      East Timor/Timor Leste

9.      Iran

10.  Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

11.  Kiribati

12.  Kuwait

13.  Kygyz Republic/Kyrgyzstan

14.  Lesotho

15.  Maldives

16.  Micronesia

17.  Mongolia

18.  Montenegro

19.  Mozambique

20.  Panama

21.  Papua New Guinea

22.  Qatar

23.  Serbia

24.  Solomon Islands

25.  Sri  Lanka

26.  Syria

27.  Swaziland

28.  Tajikistan

29.  Turkmenistan

30.  United Arab Emirates

31.  Yemen

32.  Zambia