DOLE nixes lifting of OFW deployment ban to Iraq

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Thursday said it still was not inclined to recommend the easing of a ban against the “deployment" of Filipino workers to strife-torn Iraq.

“It’s up for the Department of Foreign Affairs since they are the ones assessing the situation in Iraq. We are not giving any recommendations (to lift the ban)," Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said in reaction to reports that the ban has only resulted in more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) going to Iraq illegally.

The DFA had earlier expressed opposition against any move to lift the ban, saying Iraq was very dangerous for workers.

President Arroyo stopped the sending of OFWs to Iraq in July 2004 following the abduction of truck driver Angelo dela Cruz by kidnap gangs in Baghdad.

Talk has been rife that Dela Cruz was freed months later after the Philippine government paid more than $1 million. DFA officials have refused to confirm the ransom payment.

The last batch of the 4,500 legally deployed OFWs in 2003 have returned to the country recently. The documented OFWs whose contract expired recently was deployed mainly by Anglo-European Services Inc. five years ago.

All of the workers were assigned to huge US bases Camps Anaconda and Camp Victory under the management of Prime Projects International who had a contract with the
US Armed Forces for the maintenance and operations of the bases.

Recruitment agencies have stepped up their lobby for the scrapping of the ban, saying the ban only led to a rise in the number of undocumented OFWs in Iraq.

Anglo-European recruitment consultant Emmanuel S. Geslani said there are an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 undocumented OFWs now employed in both the green zone and outside of the green zone areas of Iraq.

“The last 300 documented workers returned this month from Iraq upon the expiration of their passports with a five-year term. Many of the ex-Iraq workers were bitter against the Arroyo administration for imposing the ban and refusing to allow the workers to return to the country for visits," Geslani said.

He added that majority of the workers started returning to the country upon the expiration of their passports after 4-5 years of continuously working without seeing their loved ones and relatives.

Geslani said the DFA’s recommendation to continue the deployment ban despite the improved conditions in Iraq was “ill-conceived." - GMANews.TV

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