OFWs-Conditions

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) sees no massive displacement of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) despite the debt crisis in Europe.

MIGRANTE CLAIMS MANILA, Philippines—At least two “mysterious” deaths of Filipino workers abroad are being reported every month, Filipino migrants rights group Migrante said Saturday.

MANILA, Philippines – A survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that beneficiaries of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are saving less in the third quarter of the year due to the continued appreciation of the peso against the dollar.

Labour relations between the UAE and the Philippines is one of supply and demand, as is the case for every country that sends its citizens to work overseas. For the Philippines, it is important to remember that workers, unable to find employment at home, keep local economies afloat with billions of dollars in remittances sent…

The top three concerns of Filipinas in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are sexual harassment, unwanted pregnancies, and abuse of domestic workers, said a survey conducted by “Ilustrado,” a Filipino society magazine in Dubai.

Many also waiting to get gratuity pay, says PH labor attaché MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Embassy in Libya is still encouraging more Filipino workers to avail of the offer of repatriation from the conflict-torn country, but lack of jobs back home is holding them from returning.

About 85 percent of the total 17,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) working in Syria were undocumented and were illegally recruited and victims of human trafficking, according to Blas Ople Policy Center (BOPC).

MANILA, Philippines – Migrant Filipinos are synonymous with the word trouble in Malaysia’s Sabah state, according to a confidential cable from the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur that was released by WikiLeaks on Wednesday.

Philippine officials may have a hard time convincing Syrian employers to let go of their Filipino domestic helpers in Syria despite a standing government policy to repatriate Filipinos in the troubled Middle East state, Manila’s top diplomat there conceded yesterday.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—An estimated 5,000 Filipinos are languishing in various detention facilities in Sabah and other Malaysian states after they were arrested for “illegal entry,” according to an official of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Sen. Manny Villar yesterday urged the Department of Labor and Employment and Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration to act swiftly on the complaints of five overseas Filipino workers against a welfare officer based in Ammam, Jordan who wanted to force them to go back to work despite having escaped from abusive employers.

Loan defaults by Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia have become a big headache not only for money lenders in the Kingdom, but also for other Filipinos acting as their guarantors.

SINGAPORE: The man with his right arm draped casually over Mohammad’s shoulders as they walk out of a metro station could be mistaken for the Bangladeshi guest worker’s best buddy.

‘We like Filipinos’ The Philippines on Tuesday welcomed an envoy loyal to embattled Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, who assured that some 1,700 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who opted to remain in the rebellion-torn country were safe, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

LONDON – The government of the United Kingdom will implement new retirement rules that will allow its citizens to work even after the age of 65. Starting October of this year, the default retirement age of 65 in this country will be scrapped. This means that those who are close to retirement will not have…

A non-government organization is urging the Office of the President to save the lives of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are facing executions by assisting them with “blood money.”

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang will be coming up with a policy with regard to the so-called “blood money” that government – usually by force of circumstance – allocates for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who are facing legal cases abroad.

In June 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of a Maryland couple on charges that they held a Filipina domestic worker in servitude. The couple lured the victim—an impoverished, uneducated mother of eight—by promising a salary that could support the victim’s children in the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines – One hundred twenty Filipinos face deportation after they were arrested and detained for illegally working in Dubai, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Loan and credit card payments rank high among the problems of Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a report on The Gulf Today.

Dubai police on Wednesday arrested 120 Filipinos who were learned to be illegally working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

BAHRAIN must create and implement tough legislation to punish people who abuse domestic workers, says a local human rights society. Authorities must also adequately punish employers who illegally withhold passports and pay salaries months and years late. These requests are among a list of recommendations Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) has submitted to be discussed…

Israel relies on cheap labor from migrant workers from other countries. Those workers are being forced to live under new, increasingly stringent laws. This story was originally covered by PRI’s The World. On a recent Saturday in south Tel Aviv, hundreds of children and their mothers gathered in Levinski Park. In a festive spurt of…

THE GOVERNMENT must better enforce regulations aimed at protecting overseas workers, particularly overseas household service workers, noted a study conducted by the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC), in collaboration with the state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

Labor officials from the Philippines and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) discussed recent reforms in the Saudi labor system that will benefit overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) there.

RIYADH: Twenty Filipinos out of a group of about 150 trailer truck drivers in Dammam have stopped work due to violations of the terms and conditions of their employment contracts by their employer.

The plight of nearly 3 million Filipinos who face displacement in the Middle East and North Africa will be one of the focal points in an International Labor Organization (ILO) conference in Geneva, Switzerland next month.

Brussels: Monday 31 May 2011 (ITUC OnLine): A new multimedia report uncovering the human cost of the huge migrant labour force in the Gulf States of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates is being launched today by the International Trade Union Confederation in Brussels.

ONLY 69 Filipinos in Yemen, out of at least 1,442 (those who are registered with the Philippine embassy), want to come home, despite the Department of Foreign Affairs’ having raised the crisis alert to level three in the tension-gripped country.

RIYADH // In a bid to curb abuses of their nationals, Indonesia and the Philippines are seeking mandatory new working conditions for household staff in Saudi Arabia, but Riyadh is resisting several of the demands, diplomats from the South-east Asian countries said.