Migrant Workers

Families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who commit suicide are now entitled to insurance benefits, insurance companies said this weekend. The provision for suicides has been included in the compulsory insurance policy recently implemented by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) in line with Republic Act 10022, which requires all recruitment agencies to provide workers…

In a bid to make overseas Filipino workers understand the laws of their host countries, the Department of Labor and Employment ordered Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) to develop clear “FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)” for them.

MANILA, Philippines – The government yesterday rejected calls to exempt some countries from the mandatory insurance coverage for Filipino migrant workers amid protests from foreign employers.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The 11 displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) now stranded in Los Angeles on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) vehemently denied receiving any help from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) based in Washington, D.C. The workers, who are believed to be victims of human traffickers, said that the only assistance they have received since…

HONG KONG – Employers here are protesting the new compulsory insurance requirement for overseas Filipino workers stipulated in the amended Migrant Workers Act of 1995, saying this constitutes double insurance which would overburden them and lead to job loss.   

Some 58 Filipino teachers in Brunei attended an orientation conducted by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) about the government services they can avail of while working abroad.

MANILA, Philippines – After the Manila hostage fiasco, Filipinos aspiring to work in Hong Kong face a new crisis. Employment agencies in Hong Kong are now threatening to stop the recruitment of workers from the Philippines due to the mandatory insurance requirement.

Runaway overseas Filipino workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are not only growing in number, they are also getting bolder. This was the assessment of Philippine labor officials in the KSA, who are getting worried over the development.

SAN JOSE, Saipan – Thousands of overseas Filipino workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are urging US President Barack Obama to protect legal foreign workers from mass deportation after November 2011.

DAVAO CITY—A local migrants’ center has called the attention of authorities over what it called a big number of families abandoned by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and whose plight has been largely overlooked by government and nongovernment welfare organizations.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The 11 displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have sought shelter in Los Angeles to escape harsh working conditions in far away Mississippi in the US East Coast have denounced the inaction by Philippine labor officials on their request for assistance.

The Child Protection Unit (CPU) Philippines said feminization of overseas labor, alcohol and use of illegal drugs pushed up incest incidents in the Philippines to 33 percent of total child abuse cases recorded in 2009.

RIYADH: An increasing number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have run away from their employers in Saudi Arabia, according to a non-governmental organization that looks after migrant workers from the Philippines.

PASIG City – Only sixth sense can help overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) succeed in business: common sense. That’s according to Miguel Bolos Jr., a former OFW who now runs a shopping mall and spa after a quarter of a century of working in Saudi Arabia.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has formed a fact-finding committee to conduct an investigation into the case of a Filipina household service worker who was allegedly subjected to verbal abuse by Romulo Salud, the labor attaché currently posted in Hong Kong.

VICE President Jejomar Binay yesterday asked the customs bureau to reconsider its plan to charge an additional $1 to $2 fee for departing airline passengers to cover for the payment of the overtime of its employees.

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.

SAN PABLO CITY, Philippines—They may be tourists abroad, but back home in San Pablo City in Laguna, spouses and children of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) play hosts to guests, either as tour guides or as home-stay operators.

MANILA – The Philippines’s labor department reiterated its policy to reinforce centers for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) abroad by deploying more employees overseas.

Two overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia haled their employer to court for allegedly refusing to give them their exit visas and benefits six weeks after they quit their jobs.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Consulate-General in Macau, China, has set a dialog with groups of overseas Filipino workers questioning various Philippine government policies, among them the controversial affidavit of support (AOS) and compulsory membership to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and Pag-Ibig Fund.

A 28-year-old Filipina worker in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was “rescued” after allegedly being assaulted by her Egyptian employers, a UEA-based news site reported.

MANILA, Philippines – Only 43 countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

MANILA, Philippines—Overseas Filipino workers’ groups and recruitment agencies have reiterated their concern over the looming enforcement of compulsory insurance coverage for all deployed OFWs, as provided by the amended Migrant Workers Act.

CALIFORNIA, United States—Nimfa and Margaret are both special education teachers who obtained “J1” visas to teach in two different school districts in the United States.

MANILA, Philippines – The deplorable situation of some of the country’s overseas workers has hogged headlines for days. More than a month after an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) abandoned her newborn on a Gulf Air flight, OFW Marlon Cueva supposedly took his own life on his return trip home.

MANILA, Philippines – Is there a need for a Philippine embassy in a country with only 173 Filipinos?

Labor officials sternly reminded recruitment firms Wednesday against passing on to prospective overseas Filipino workers the cost of their mandatory insurance coverage.

Despite the government travel ban to Afghanistan, some 4,000 undocumented Filipinos are reportedly working in the Middle East state, Labor and diplomatic sources yesterday said.

FILIPINO migrant workers, mostly those undocumented, feel the brunt of foreign governments’ stringent economic measures resulting from the impact of the global financial crisis with continuing arrests in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while those in Malaysia are forced to use their passports as collateral to get loans to get by as they continue to…