Gov’t to send medical workers to Libya

The Philippines is set to deploy Filipino medical workers in Libya through a government-to-government agreement without the intervention of private recruitment agencies.

Other countries, among them the United Arab Emirates, have also expressed intentions to bring in Filipino workers through a government-to-government venture.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said Libya prefers to hire Filipino workers through a government-to-government undertaking to avoid confusion when there are brokers or recruitment agencies involved.

Although Libya wants to hire medical faculty and nursing faculty, the government is looking into the possibility of a deal to deploy Filipino nurses, he added.

Brion said the government-to-government hiring of Filipino workers would eliminate the problem of illegal recruitment, but the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) could not adopt that policy for other countries.

"We could not do this in all countries overseas because the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) could no longer attend to all of them since it has other jobs that need to be taken care of," he said.

Libya is the second country with which the Philippines would enter into a government-to-government recruitment agreement after South Korea.

Meanwhile, the POEA reported that the South Korean Ministry of Labor has increased to 12,000 the job quota for Filipino workers.

POEA chief Rosalinda Baldoz said the Philippines got the highest quota among the 14 labor sending countries to South Korea.

"The decision to increase the quota for the Philippines underscores the confidence of (South) Korea in the soundness of our labor migration policies and confidence in our ability to deliver the required services," she said.

The previous year, South Korea allocated 10,000 jobs for Filipino workers. – Mayen Jaymalin