New OFW hires barred from leaving for Egypt

Egyptian army stand guard around the Republican Guard building in Nasr City in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, July 8, 2013. Egyptian soldiers and police opened fire on supporters of the ousted President Mohammed Morsi early Monday in violence that left dozens of people killed, including one officer, outside the military building in Cairo where demonstrators had been holding a sit-in, government officials and witnesses said. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on Friday imposed a temporary ban on Filipinos leaving for work in Egypt as political tensions continued to escalate in the Arab country.

Under Resolution 06, the POEA Governing Board enforced a temporary suspension on the processing and deployment of newly hired Filipino workers to Egypt.

The board said the decision came following consultations with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

On Tuesday, the DFA raised crisis alert level 2 in Egypt after tensions escalated between thousands of supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the Egyptian military.

“Under alert level 2, only the processing and deployment of returning OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] with existing employment contracts shall be allowed, and the processing and deployment of newly hired OFWs shall be suspended,” the POEA resolution said.

Level 2 in the Philippine government’s four-tier emergency advisory system for OFWs restricts the movements of the nearly 6,000 Filipinos across the Arab country as the violence there continues.

Level 3 signals a voluntary evacuation from the area of concern, while level 4 initiates a mandatory evacuation.