DoLE bans OFW deployment to Syria

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz warned anew Filipino jobseekers from applying for work in Syria owing to the present ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) to that country due to continuing conflict.

“The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency has suspended the processing of documents of OFWs bound for Syria,” Baldoz said. “Syria is not a safe place for OFWs to work in.”

Philippine labor attache to Damascus Angel Borja reported that the political and economic condition in Syria has remained unstable and continues to deteriorate.

He said Syria remains under Crisis Alert Level 4 which the Department of Foreign Affairs declared in December 2011.

“Under this alert level, there is a continuing mandatory repatriation of Filipino nationals from Syria,” Baldoz said.

The Philippine government has already repatriated 1,531 OFWs from Syria since the start of the political crisis there. Of this number, only 179 were documented.

Borja also reported that there were 1,375 more OFWs, out of 3,053 repatriation applicants, whose repatriation is being processed.

“To date, the Philippine Embassy’s registration program has netted a total of 6,942 Filipino nationals still remaining in Syria,” Borja said.

“A new Syrian law has stopped the issuance of entry visas to all Filipino nationals effective April 1, 2012,” he said.

Baldoz has instructed the POEA to strictly clamp down on illegal recruitment of OFWs not only for Syria, but also for other countries, and to work closely with the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Human Trafficking. –Mina Diaz, Daily Tribune