Migrant Workers

MANILA, Philippines—The total ban against the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq remains, but the thousands of Filipinos working in military facilities of the United States in the war-torn country may continue working there until their contracts expires.

SINGAPORE – Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said his country is “managing” the entry of foreign workers including Filipinos as the prosperous Southeast Asian city state grapples with rising migration and declining local population.

OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFWs) employed in United States military facilities in Iraq “may continue working there until their contracts expire,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday night. The department had sent a high-level inter-agency committee to Iraq to assess the security and ensure the well-being of the Filipino workers there.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has endorsed to Malacañang the creation of Consultative Council on Overseas Filipinos (CCOF) for the protection and promotion of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)’s rights.

DUBAI – Filipino workers inside US military camps in Iraq are now exempted from the travel and deployment ban imposed by the Philippine government.

A survey debunking claims that Philippine wages are more expensive than those in China is the anchor of a Board of Investments’ investment promotion campaign aimed at attracting manufacturing industries that are not power-intensive.

MANILA, Philippines—Overseas Filipino workers have been doing more for the country other than sending remittances that virtually keep the Philippines afloat.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), through the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), released last Friday the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10022 or the amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995.

Resource centers of Philippine embassies will be “transformed” to offer a wider range of “care and services” for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) instead of simply being sites for skills enhancement.

VICE President Jejomar Binay on Thursday has ordered two government agencies to suspend the implementation of the order that mandates the six-month advance contribution of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Home Development Mutual (Pag-IBIG) Fund. In a statement, Binay directed both the Pag-IBIG and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) “to conduct a thorough…

Brussels, 6 January 2010 (ITUC OnLine): A decision taken by the ITUC’s Israeli affiliate Histadrut to allow migrant workers membership is a significant step towards ensuring an end to exploitation and helping ensure full respect for their rights at work.  The December 28 decision by the national trade union centre removes an anomaly whereby only…

Over 60 groups have joined the Philippine support program for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

THE ban for travel and labor deployment in Iraq “remains” even as various overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) groups call for the lifting of the ban because of the possibility of losing their jobs, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday. Esteban Conejos Jr., Foreign Affairs department undersecretary for migrant affairs, said…

DUBAI – Special envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu has arrived in war-torn Iraq amid growing clamor to lift the work and travel ban of Filipinos in that country.

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For some time now, the media have always had a field day every time news or images of Filipino nationals living in seemingly harsh conditions under a bridge in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are published or seen on television screens.  Invariably, the message that such news or images deliver is that our Filipino “workers”…

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—A Saudi cleric said only Muslim housemaids should be allowed in the oil-rich country and they should be kept segregated from men in the home, an online news site reported on Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines – At least 6,000 Filipino workers are set to return home from war-torn Iraq upon the orders of the US government, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Job offers, not sanctions, are waiting for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who violated the Philippine government’s deployment ban to Iraq.

Thousands of Filipino workers in Iraq are on the brink of losing their jobs after the US government ordered all its military contractors to send home expatriate workers whose country imposes a travel ban in Iraq.

Thousands of Filipino domestic helpers are still getting jobs in Jordan despite a two-year-old deployment ban there for such occupation, a Philippine Embassy official said.

MANILA, Philippines—France has discontinued the issuance of the so-called blue cards which granted highly skilled foreign workers easier entry into the country, French Ambassador to the Philippines Thierry Borja de Mozota said.

More than 100 Filipinos, mostly in the Middle East and China, are facing death for committing various crimes, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said.

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong should enjoy the same rights as local workers, the multi-nationality Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body (AMCB) said in a statement.

VIEWPOINT He works for a legislative strengthening project in Afghanistan funded by USAID and implemented by the State University of New York. He may be reached at vcuyco@yahoo.com.

About 20 stranded Filipinos, including four children, have been staying in makeshift shelter beside the Philippine Consulate General’s (PCG) office in Jeddah, a Filipino migrants’ rights group there reported.

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MANILA, Philippines — Last week, I received a heartwarming comment regarding my recent write-up here in INQUIRER.net’s Global Nation entitled, “Some RP execs engaged in human trafficking.”

MANILA, Philippines – Over 5,000 undocumented Filipino workers are now working in war-torn Afghanistan and the number is still growing, local recruiters reported yesterday.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama called for an end to political posturing and special interest wrangling in this midterm election year so the US immigration system can be fixed, a move that could benefit hundreds of thousands of Filipinos overstaying their visas or waiting to join their relatives here.