Government stops sending OFWs to ME

Amid hostilities in the Middle East, the Departments of Labor and Employment and Foreign Affairs suspended yesterday the deployment of Filipino workers to four countries in the region.

Acting Labor Secretary Manuel Imson said that the government will immediately stop sending workers to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel until further notice from the Philippine embassies in the affected areas.

"Owing to the imminence of war and the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East," Imson said, the DOLE and DFA "decided that a suspension in the deployment of OFWs to the four countries is the best action to take at the moment."

This ban covers all types of workers, including those home on vacation. The host countries and employers of these workers were already advised of the ban, which will affect 6,300 OFWs monthly.

Some 200 OFWs bound for the Middle East were barred from boarding at least two flights out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) yesterday as the ban went into effect.

The DOLE sent an order to the NAIA airline offices not to allow the OFWs to go to the Middle East because of the ongoing hostilities between the United States and Iraq.

"This is only a temporary measure," Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said. "I called on Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas to enforce the freeze on the deployment of (OFWs) in these four countries."

"As soon as the situation stabilizes in Iraq, we will lift the ban," Ople said.

Ople directed DFA Undersecretary Delia Albert to work out with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) a way to provide Filipino contractors and manpower providers with a mechanism by which they can participate in the rehabilitation of a "post-Saddam" Iraq.

Imson reported that some 100 overstaying OFWs in Kuwait were evacuated to the Bahay Pinoy relocation site in Nuwalsib, on the outskirts of Kuwait City.

"We continue to review the policy and the list (of countries with a deployment ban) may grow or reduce, depending on the situation," Imson said.

Imson also directed the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to immediately activate their respective action centers, designed to assist OFWs and their families. These action centers, he said, "will be open 24 hours, seven days a week."

Labor and welfare attaches in the Middle East were directed to monitor the situation in their areas and be ready to provide any assistance needed by OFWs there.

There are 1.4 million OFWs in the Middle East, but labor authorities expect that only the 6,000 employed near the Iraq-Kuwait border will need to be evacuated to safer ground.

Philippine embassy officials in Saudi Arabia have been deployed to check on the condition of OFWs in the Eastern Province, near Kuwait and Iraq.

Saudi Arabia has authorized 15-day emergency transit visas to all foreign nationals, allowing them to use Saudi as a transit point to return home.

The Philippine embassy in Saudi Arabia has advised the over 960,000 OFWs in the kingdom to keep a low profile, remain calm and exercise caution in matters concerning personal security.

The English-language daily Arab News quoted Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Bahnarim Guinomla as saying he "believes that the immediate situation does not necessitate relocation or evacuation" of OFWs there.

The envoy also advised OFWS to "most importantly, be alert and keep informed of developments through radio and television."

Guinomla urged all OFWs there to ensure the validity of their passports for exit and reentry purposes and keep personal documents and valuables close at hand.

Filipino community groups in the Saudi provinces of Alkhobar and Dammam have formed emergency assistance teams dubbed Kilos Kalinga 2003 to assist OFWs likely to be displaced from Kuwait, the Arab News reported. — With Jose Rodel Clapano, Sammy Santos, Perseus Echeminada and Sandy Araneta