Labor dep’t vows to beef up resource centers for overseas Filipino workers

THE LABOR department has vowed to reinforce centers for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) by deploying more employees abroad.

This was one of the policy pronouncements in a document prepared by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) for President Benigno S. C. Aquino III’s report on his first 100 days in office.

“[The department will work] with the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) to transform Philippine embassies, consular offices, and Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) into centers of care and service for overseas workers by assigning more foreign service officers to posts where there are many OFWs,” the DoLE said in its 22-point Platform and Policy Pronouncements on Labor and Employment.

This came after the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released a report recommending that the government provide more resources to Filipino Workers Resource Centers (FWRCs).

The report, titled “Migrant Resource Centers: An Initial Assessment,” said that apart from resources, government should also make sure FWRCs are used by as many potential clients as possible and that migrants’ savings and skills are appropriately used inside these centers.

Republic Act No. 8042 or the 1995 Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act requires FWRCs to be set up in any country where there are more than 20,000 OFWs.

FWRCs were among the first migrant resource centers (MRCs) worldwide, next to Australia’s Spectrum MRC, which was formed in 1976.

There are 21 FWRCs in 18 countries. Three of them are in OFW-rich Saudi Arabia while two are in the United Arab Emirates, another OFW beehive in the Middle East.

The IOM assessed 13 MRCs in Albania, Australia, Colombia, Croatia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, Mali, Portugal, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan. The report, written by Paul Tacon and Elizabeth Warn, heaped praise on the Philippines’ FWRCs, citing services aimed at empowering migrant workers and protecting their rights.

The international body also lauded FWRCs for offering remittance-related services and information on investment options.

FWRCs also provide employment-related assistance such as job-matching services. Moreover, they promote involvement of migrants in so-called migration-for-development projects, such as donations to hometown associations in the Philippines.

The IOM noted that FWRCs provide “24-7 services to migrants in emergency situations, and migrants who must not miss their usual work schedules.”

FWRCs have “extensive experience in assisting migrants,” not just in legal assistance but also in providing psychosocial counseling and on-site physical and mental health services.

Being a physical structure, FWRCs have sheltered distressed Filipinos — workers who ran away from work, were imprisoned in private employers’ homes or in work sites, or were abused. They also housed workers whose contracts were illegally terminated, victims of illegal recruitment, and those facing homelessness.

The Philippine embassy or consulate is supposed to assist in the repatriation of sheltered OFWs.

FWRCs were also lauded by the IOM in terms of providing vital information to the government on the conditions and issues faced by Filipino workers.

State auditors have already highlighted the FWRCs’ lack of resources.

A 2008 audit report by the Commission on Audit (CoA) on the government’s overseas workers’ welfare program revealed high ratios between FWRC staff and the total number of OFWs and cases of distressed OFWs.

Citing 2006 data, six staff of the FWRC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia served an estimated 540,000 OFWs (or a ratio of one is to 90,000), while the two FWRC staff in neighboring Saudi Arabia served an estimated 200,000 OFWs (or a ratio of one to 240,000).

Only one staff catered to 6,524 cases at the FWRC in Taipei. With only two staff at the Taipei FWRC, this meant that each handled 17.9 cases a day.

“The wide range of ratios in relation to the number of OFWs and welfare cases received are an indication of the absence of a standard on the number of [government] personnel needed to ensure responsive welfare services to OFWs,” the CoA report said.

The DoLE said 1,204 wards were housed in FWRCs at the end of July, 561 of whom were repatriated in July and August 2010. A total of 734 OFWs from Jeddah were repatriated from July 1 to Sept. 26.

The Labor department said welfare and protection for OFWs would “remain a government priority that [requires a] comprehensive program and budget support during the entire migration cycle from pre-employment, on-site employment, and post deployment which includes reintegration.” — Jeremaiah M. Opiniano and Isagani de la Paz, OFW Journalism Consortium