Migrant Workers

BAGUIO CITY—The government has virtually acknowledged helplessness in stopping the flight of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to countries where deployment is banned because of conflicts or wars.

MANILA, Philippines—Get the big fish first. Vice President Noli de Castro gave this order Monday to the Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (TFAIR) after learning that there were 29,000 still unserved warrants of arrest against illegal recruiters.

A total of 59 Filipino workers are facing death penalty in various countries, a Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines—An alliance of Filipino worker groups in the Middle East Monday called on the government to come to the aid of a Filipino woman who had complained that she was raped by her employer’s son but who ended up being jailed for adultery in the United Arab Emirates.

Some 49 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have come home after leaving their jobs in a glass factory in Poland over wage and other issues.

The United Nations’ Office of the High Commission on Human Rights will subject the Philippine government to “a higher level of scrutiny” when it comes to protecting the rights of migrant workers, after the Philippines claimed to be a global “model” among countries sending out workers overseas.

MANILA, Philippines—As one of the biggest sources of migrant workers in the world, the Philippines should step up initiatives to ensure the protection of the rights of its workers, an arm of the United Nations (UN) said in a report.

MANILA, Philippines—Filipino nurses are still welcome in New Zealand, executives of the New Zealand Nursing Council told the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing.

MANILA, Philippines – Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Vicente Sotto III disclosed yesterday that 33 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are now detained in several prisons in Brazil and Suriname because of drug-related offenses.

The Philippine mission to the United Nations in Geneva yesterday belied reports that the country has been taken off a UN list of model countries for migrant workers for failing to protect its workers from abuses.

MANILA, Philippines—The government should go slow in its labor export policy amid increasing cases of rights violations, threats, and even deaths of Filipinos working abroad, a member of the House of Representatives said Tuesday.

COUNTRIES that are migrant destinations should not shut their doors on foreign workers even amid the economic crisis, International Labor Organization’s Senior Economist Gyorgy Sziraczki of the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific said at a forum in the SDMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has appealed for greater protection of the rights of migrants at the World Conference on Racism in Geneva, Switzerland.

MANILA, Philippines—No discrimination against migrant workers and more protection of their human rights in the continuing global fight against racism.

MANILA, Philippines—Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may soon be provided with compulsory insurance to cover monetary claims or damages awarded to them in the course of doing their jobs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents, a report says.

As the number of Filipino seamen being held hostage in Somalia has swelled to 120, the Philippine government remains clueless on how to provide protection to the thousands of Filipino seafarers sailing through the dangerous waters of Africa.

MANILA, Philippines—A leading seafarers’ group called on the Philippine government Tuesday to lead an international response to piracy off the Somali coast.

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) Noli De Castro yesterday said the government would maintain the ban on the deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers(OFWs) to Nigeria to protect workers from possible harm.

MANILA, Philippines – The Hong Kong columnist who has been the target of Filipino rage since he called the country “a nation of servants” issued a public apology Tuesday evening, admitting that he crossed the line and was sorry.

The publisher and editors of Hong Kong Magazine yesterday apologized for the “politically incorrect” article written by its columnist Chip Tsao which has sparked outrage among Filipinos at home and in the former British colony.

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Pia Cayetano called yesterday for a public apology from a top Hong Kong publication and one of its columnists for a racial slur against Filipinos over the country’s right to claim the Spratly Islands.

MANILA, Philippines – A congresswoman yesterday called on a Hong Kong magazine to apologize to the Philippine government for offensive and defamatory comments on Filipinos in an article on the country’s claim over the Spratly islands which China also claims.

AT least 40 Filipinos are stranded in Malaysia for failure to pay the penalties for overstaying, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported over the weekend.

MANILA, Philippines—Eighteen Chinese nationals purportedly coming to the country to visit were actually workers bound for a construction project at the Cagayan Economic Zone Area (Ceza).

ILAGAN, Isabela – Twenty-nine overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) now stranded in Oman have sought the assistance of President Arroyo to help them be repatriated and also collect their unpaid salaries for four years from their Taiwanese employer.

Thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in United Arab Emirates (UAE) are likely to return home soon not because of the economic crisis but due to the new immigration policy in UAE, the Department of Labor and Employment reported yesterday.

Overseas Filipino workers trooped to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) main office in Manila yesterday to protest the ban in the “direct hiring” of OFWs in Hong Kong.

Somali pirates have freed all 21 Filipino crewmembers of a ship hijacked off Somalia three months ago, the government said yesterday.

A massive evacuation of Filipinos and other foreigners from the Gaza Strip was called off yesterday upon the advice of the Red Cross due to intense fighting, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.