DOLE suspends OFW deployment to Jordan

(Updated 2:30 p.m.)The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) temporarily suspended deployment of Filipino workers to Jordan following an increase in number of distressed workers in that country, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said Wednesday.

In a press briefing, POEA administrator Rosalinda Baldoz said Labor Secretary Arturo Brion ordered the suspension Monday after noting that some 120 to 150 Filipino workers have sought refuge in workers resource center in Amman, Jordan due to labor problems.

She said some of the distressed workers were victims of abuse and maltreatment.

Majority of the OFWs that were housed in the FWRC or the resource center are domestic helpers that encountered problems with their employers which ranges from cases of abuse, non-payment of wages, maltreatment to even rape cases.

Baldoz said the deployment ban only covers the newly hired OFWs since returning workers which don’t have problems with their employers are allowed to return to Jordan and complete their contract.

In 1990, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) suspended the deployment of OFWs in Jordan due to high cases of maltreatment and exploitation committed among the Filipino domestic helpers.

However, in 2005, DoLE through then Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas ordered the lifting of the deployment ban with the opening of a Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Amman and the implementation of a “special work contract" which provides for a liberal welfare provisions for the foreign household service workers.

Meanwhile, Baldoz said the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) are now arranging the possible repatriation of the 120 to 150 distress OFWs in Jordan.

Aside from Jordan, deployment ban are also in effect in Nigeria, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

A total of 1,073,402 documented Filipino workers left the country last year while 1,062,567 were deployed in 2006. - GMANews.TV

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