Government mulls selective OFW deployment ban

MANILA, Philippines – The government may adopt a selective deployment ban in an effort to provide more protection for Filipino workers, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported yesterday.

POEA chief Carlos Cao Jr. said the agency is looking into the possibility of imposing a selective or skill-based deployment ban to enable the government to comply with the new Migrant Workers Act.

“The board is set to discuss the proposal to adopt a selective or skill-based deployment ban. But at this time, we cannot preempt what the board will do,” he disclosed.

Cao explained that the newly amended Migrant Workers Act prohibits deployment of Filipino workers to countries without the necessary certification as “safe destination” from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

However, he noted that the DFA had difficulty in assessing whether a certain country is compliant to the requirements of the law such as having a bilateral agreement with the Philippines, among others.

According to the government, the requirements had to be imposed to ensure protection and welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), particularly the lowly-skilled who are vulnerable to abuses.

But based on the assessment of the DFA on all countries employing Filipino workers, Cao said there was no hard and fast rule in the issuance of the certification.

“It turned out that the issuance of certification is not that simple since there are many peculiarities and differences. Like there are certain level of skills to be considered and some countries are compliant in one skill but not in the other,” he pointed out.

Cao added that the government cannot just impose an outright ban to non-compliant countries due to diplomatic concerns as well as the need of many Filipino workers for employment.

“The POEA needs to act with utmost prudence and high degree of wisdom in this issue because of its diplomatic implication and the need for employment,” Cao said.

“We just have to find a resolution that would provide protection for our workers as mandated by the law.” –Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)