RP execs to OFWs: Don't defy travel ban vs Iraq

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine authorities in Iraq are verifying reports that seven Filipino workers in Dubai left their work site two months ago and slipped into Iraq.

Online news site Khaleej Times reported Thursday that the news prompted the Philippine consulate general to caution Filipinos against going to Iraq.

Consul Vicente Bandillo has warned Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates about violating the travel ban to the troubled country.

Bandillo cited reports Wednesday that seven Filipino workers in Dubai left their work site slipped into Iraq using their old passports.

He said that the Philippine government's travel ban to Iraq has been in force since 2004.

But since Philippine passports are good for two years, some Filipinos whose passports are due to expire next year without the notice "Not Valid For Travel To Iraq" are taking the risk by using their expiring passports to slip into the war-torn country, he said.

Back to Iraq?

Following the US State Department’s renewal of its contract with Blackwater, a US-based private contractor providing securities to American diplomats and personnel in Iraq, John Leonard Monterona, regional coordinator of Migrante-Middle East earlier feared that more Filipinos would soon be deployed there.

Monterona said his group has received reports that several OFWs deployed in Iraq are serving in construction and security in US facilities in Iraq and US military camps such as Camp Anaconda and Camp Victory, using Kuwait as a point of entry.

This was validated by Roy Cimatu, presidential special envoy to the Middle East, when he went to Iraq in August last year to investigate the alleged trafficking of 51 Filipinos into Baghdad to work in the construction of the huge US embassy compound there.

“We believe that there are still a considerable number of OFWs in Iraq right now, whose very lives are at stake given that the war waged by the Iraqi revolutionary movements against the US military invaders are escalating, especially in Basra and inside Baghdad City as well," Monterona said.

Last year, two former employees of First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co. confessed in a US congressional proceeding that Filipino workers promised jobs in Dubai hotels were deceptively recruited and trafficked to Iraq for a massive US embassy construction project in Baghdad.

John Owens and Roy Mayberry, both Americans, testified before a US congressional oversight investigation that 51 Filipino laborers at the US embassy construction site, were living in substandard conditions and paid minimally. - GMANews.TV

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

POPCOM, gagamit ng ‘digital platforms’ para pagtibayin ang mga ugnayang pampamilya

Mas pinalalawig ng Komisyon sa Populasyon at Pagpapaunlad (POPCOM) ang adhikain nitong pagpapalaganap at pagpapabuti ng pakikipag-ugnayan ng mga nakakatandang Pilipino sa kanilang mga anak na nagdadalaga at nagbibinata. Nitong Setyembre 21, ang POPCOM ay nagsagawa ng isang “parent-teen talk webinar” gamit ang Zoom, kung saan ang isang “interactive program” ang nagbigay ng naaayon na kaalaman at kasanayan sa mga magulang, habang tumulong ito sa mga anak na teenager na maabot ang kanilang buong potensyal. Hinikayat din nito ang mga nanay at tatay na sumali sa malayang usapan, lalo na sa mga usapin ukol sa sex at sekswalidad, na nakikitang makakatulong upang bumaba ang mga bilang ng mga pagbubuntis sa hanay ng mga kabataan. Maaaring mapanood ang webinar sa https://youtu.be/lZ9jrJCjYas. Ayon kay Ikalawang Kalihim (Undersecretary) Juan Antonio A. Perez III, MD, MPH, “ang webinar ay naging isang tagapag-simula at ‘padaluyan’ ng pag-uu
Read more

In Cairo, senior Hamas officials discuss hostage deal with Egyptian intelligence chief ---By TOI STAFF, AGENCIES and LAZAR BERMAN

Delegation said led by terror group’s Qatar-based political leader Ismail Haniyeh; Wall Street Journal reports Hamas demanding 150 security prisoners for each female soldier A delegation of senior Hamas officials arrived in Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials on a possible deal that would see the release of hostages held by terrorists in Gaza. The delegation was led by Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar, and included senior members Mousa Abu Marzook and Khalil al-Hayya, the Qatar-based Al-Araby news outlet reported, citing an unnamed Egyptian source. The Hamas officials met with the head of Egyptian intelligence, Major General Abbas Kamel, to discuss the details of a hostage deal proposal that was presented to the Gaza terror group earlier this week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. The outline of the deal was drawn up during a meeting in Paris last week in the presence of Israeli and US officials, as well as Qatari and Egyptian negotiators, a
Read more

Biden said set to make push for demilitarized Palestinian state as part of new doctrine ---By LAZAR BERMAN

New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, who’s close to the US administration, says emerging doctrine would include Saudi-Israeli normalization, 2-state solution, and campaign against Iran US President Joe Biden’s administration is homing in on a new doctrine involving an unprecedented push to immediately advance the creation of a demilitarized but viable Palestinian state, The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman reported on Thursday. The plan, Friedman wrote, “would involve some form of US recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that would come into being only once Palestinians had developed a set of defined, credible institutions and security capabilities to ensure that this state was viable and that it could never threaten Israel.” White House officials “have been consulting experts inside and outside the US government about different forms this recognition of Palestinian statehood might take,” revealed Friedman. What he termed the new “Biden Doctrin
Read more