OFWs in Iraq allowed to finish contracts

OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFWs) employed in United States military facilities in Iraq “may continue working there until their contracts expire,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday night. The department had sent a high-level inter-agency committee to Iraq to assess the security and ensure the well-being of the Filipino workers there.

The committee earlier assured Manila that the OFWs employed by the US government or its subcontractors inside American military bases and other facilities will be allowed to continue working there and finish their contracts.

It said repatriation to the Philippines of the workers was guaranteed.

The Foreign Affairs department, Department of Labor and Employment, Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Office of the Executive Secretary comprise the inter-agency task force.

There are some 2,000 Filipinos working in the US military bases and facilities in Iraq, despite bans on travel and labor deployment.

“This high-level decision has been sent to US authorities through the Philippine embassies in Washington, D.C. and Baghdad as the basis for Filipinos working inside the US bases to be considered compliant with previous US directive of repatriating non-compliant foreign workers,” the Foreign Affairs deparment said in a statement.

The department added that the lifting of the ban against labor deployment must result from a positive assessment of the security situation in Iraq.

Manila has sent Special Envoy Roy Cimatu, the head of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee, to evaluate working conditions of the OFWs in Iraq.

The ban has been in effect since July 2004, or shortly after the kidnapping of Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz.

The Migrant Workers Act, or Republic Act 8042, mandates that the government adhere to strict guidelines in allowing deployment of Filipino workers to other countries, and imposes heavy penalties on government officials who allow the deployment of migrant workers without guarantees required by law. –BERNICE CAMILLE V. BAUZON REPORTER, Manila Times