Migrant Workers

MANILA, Philippines – Exporters expressed dismay yesterday over the plan of the government to issue bonds specifically for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

MANILA, Philippines—The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has assailed the Department of Finance (DoF) for asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to veto a provision in the proposed new Migrant Workers Act that exempts the money wired home by overseas Filipino laborers from the documentary stamp tax (DST).

MANILA, Philippines – A labor group has scored the Department of Finance (DOF) for asking President Arroyo to veto a provision in the proposed new Migrant Workers Act that exempts overseas Filipino workers’ remittances from the documentary stamp tax (DST).

SINGAPORE will increase the levies for companies hiring foreign workers as the country attempts to depend less on overseas labor, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said Monday.

The amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 will hurt more the seafarers than it helps, the Mariners Association for Regional and International Networking Organization (MARINO) said Saturday.

Under a new and more stringent Syrian labor regulation, foreign workers, including Filipinos, will only be allowed to work in Syria for a maximum of three years .

MANILA, Philippines – Amid reports of rising cases of abuses against overseas Filipino workers, the government is soon adopting a new information system to provide immediate and necessary assistance for OFWs.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is looking into the veracity of a report alleging that some Filipino household service workers (HSWs) have been maltreated by their employers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Migrant workers told to report abusive employers MANILA, Philippines—As Filipino household service workers (HSWs) continue to be abused by their employers abroad, the Department of Labor and Employment on Wednesday bared its plan for an Internet-based, onsite monitoring of the profiles of overseas Filipino workers, as well as those of their foreign employers and foreign…

MANILA, Philippines — Around 100 migrants of other nationalities have joined the 200 Filipino workers who staged a job stoppage in different job site for alleged labor malpractices of their employer, Al Arab Company based in Saudi Arabia, a migrant workers’ group disclosed said today.

CANBERRA—Australia tightened its migration rules Monday in favor of English speakers and professionals, saying the country had been attracting too many hairdressers and cooks and too few doctors and engineers.

Sen. Loren Legarda wants the Senate to immediately pass the bill she authored creating the Migrant Workers Hospital so that returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) can avail themselves of medical care.

MANILA, Philippines – The number of distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East is on the rise, according to a group of migrant workers.

GARDEN CITY, New York — Ten Filipino nurses cleared last year of misdemeanor charges for quitting their jobs at a Long Island nursing home have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.

DOZENS of Filipino workers have remained trapped in a bankrupt casino ship in Florida since Christmas, unable to even set foot on US shore in a maritime version of The Terminal, the 2004 comedy-drama movie about a stateless, visa-less tourist unable to leave a New York airport.

I write this column in the hope of disabusing the public mind of recurring criticisms that the government—in particular the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)—had been “dragging its feet” in the repatriation of stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

REGARDLESS OF JOB JEDDAH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—The Foreign Ministry will issue permanent resident visas for wives and children of expatriate workers in the kingdom without considering their profession, Al-Yaum Arabic daily has reported.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino nationals transiting through New Zealand en route to other destinations are now exempted from securing transit visas, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

But controversial sponsor system stays KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait—The Kuwaiti parliament passed a new labor law on Wednesday that grants better rights and conditions for the 2.3 million foreign workers but does not scrap the controversial sponsor system.

SAYS UN EXEC MANILA, Philippines—Many of the 200 million migrants worldwide continue to be treated as commodities, violating their basic human rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on the occasion of the International Migrants Day December 18.

MANILA, Philippines – A Lebanese employer was convicted for abusing a Filipino domestic worker, the first conviction for employee abuse in the Middle Eastern country, the Philippine embassy in Beirut reported. Fayrouz Farez was sentenced on Dec. 9 to 15 days imprisonment and ordered to pay $34 in court fines, and $7,200 in compensation to…

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Canada is set to adopt a law nicknamed after Juana Tejada, a Filipina caregiver who had fought hard to improve the situation of fellow foreign live-in caregivers, it was learned Thursday.

The spouse of a high-ranking Israel official has reportedly been questioned by Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor over an alleged illegal employment of a Filipina cleaner, an online news provider reported.

BEIRUT – A Lebanese woman has been sentenced to 15 days in prison after being convicted of beating her Filipina domestic worker, a rare verdict in such cases in Lebanon, the victim’s attorney said on Wednesday.

The demand for Filipino domestic helpers in Taiwan had dropped dramatically, with Indonesians and Vietnamese taking a bigger share of the market in that country mainly as a result of the direct hiring program pushed by the government.

SM Prime Holdings Inc. has allotted P180 million to build 36 lounge facilities designed to attract overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families to SM Supermalls nationwide.

TORONTO—The federal government announced steps Saturday to better safeguard foreign caregivers from abuse and exploitation, but opposition critics say the changes Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is proposing won’t provide full protection, the Canadian Press reported.

RINA JIMENEZ-DAVID WROTE in her Dec. 2 column (“Giving migrant workers a voice”) that she heard a group of women OFWs complaining, over dzMM, that their repatriation from Dubai were delayed by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

Philippine and Jordanian labor officials will soon sign an agreement that seeks to address issues arising from the employment of overseas Filipino workers in Jordan.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—With the repercussions of Dubai’s worst financial crisis still hanging thick in the air like lost secrets, life for most Filipinos working in this Middle Eastern cosmopolitan enclave goes on, their resilience hanging tough against yet another litmus test.