Govt urged to curb deployment of OFWs to the Middle East

MANILA, Philippines — Government should seriously regulate and control the deployment of workers in the Middle East to prevent the continued increase in the numbers of reported stranded Filipinos, an alliance of overseas Filipino workers said on Saturday.

Migrante-Middle East urged the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labor and Employment to take action as it reported that there are now 2,700 Filipinos stranded along the Oman-United Arab Emirates(UAE) border and 5,000 more in the Iran-UAE border.

The figures are in addition to the thousands of runaway Filipino workers that are government shelters or staying with friends in various countries in the Middle East.

Many of the stranded OFWs were on a short-term non-renewable visit visa presumably to visit relative OFWs in the UAE but whose main purpose is to look for a job. The lack of jobs in the Philippines forced many Filipinos to look for work abroad.

"Many OFs (overseas Filipinos) were forced to leave the United Arab Emirates when the host government implemented a new visit visa law that requires them to apply for a tourist visa instead," said Nhel Morona, Migrante-UAE secretary-general.

The group said the new law requires one to get a Visit Entry permit that allows its holder to enter the UAE once within two months, as of the date of its issue, and stay for a period of 30 days from the date of entry.

John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-ME regional coordinator, explained that the visit visa procedure is the easiest way an aspiring OFW could go to any open countries in the Middle East such as UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain without going through the normal process of OFW deployment via local recruitment agencies that are charging huge amount like placement fees aside from the fees and charges collected by the government.

Monterona said "stranded OFWs live in very poor conditions. Most them were crammed in a single room and hardly eating three square meals a day."

He said the government should come up with concrete actions to save the distressed workers.

DFA acting Secretary Esteban Conejos Jr on Saturday said Philippine officials in the UAE and Oman have been directed to plead with the government of the two countries for lenience in dealing with the stranded workers.

Conejos said they would first coordinate with UAE officials before deciding whether or not to bring the workers home, adding that repatriation was currently not yet an option.

“(The decision to repatriate the OFWs) will depend on how the UAE government responds to our request for leniency," Conejos told GMANews.TV in an interview.

He also assured that a team from the Philippine Embassy in Dubai would meet with the stranded OFWs at the border to check their condition.

Conejos explained that the new policy on the issuance of visas in UAE had been implemented on July 29.

The new regulation, which directs previous visit visa holders to reapply as tourists, led to the rejection of thousands of visa applications from the Filipinos.

“The Filipinos had been warned since March (about the new rule)," said Conejos, but added the Philippine government would nevertheless still try to work things out with the UAE government.

There had been varying reports on the number of stranded Filipinos outside the UAE, but roughly 6,000 Filipinos had been affected by the change in visa policies, the DFA said.

In one part of the Oman border, some 1,000 OFWs were forced to hole up in a number of hotels, according to Conejos.

Since Tuesday, a four-man consulate team from the embassy in Muscat has been dispatched to Al Buraimi, along the Oman-UAE border to help the Filipinos, according to Conejos. - GMANews.TV

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