MANILA, Philippines - The government is unlikely to suspend the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq and Yemen despite the prevailing hostilities in the two Middle East countries.
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Hans Cacdac said the agency has not received any recommendation from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for the reimposition of the deployment ban.
Cacdac said the POEA opted to resume the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq only after the DFA lowered the alert to 1. But the Philippines is still not deploying household service workers to Iraq and all types of workers to identified “no go zones†in Iraq.
“The DFA has already certified that Iraq has laws and policies that protect migrants workers, except for household service workers so there is basis for the lifting of the deployment ban,†Cacdac explained, adding that the POEA would coordinate with the DFA and take necessary action depending on new developments in Iraq.
It was reported that seven people were killed in gun attacks and bombing aimed mainly at Shi’ite Muslims who were celebrating the end of Ramadan.
The US military, on the other hand, evacuated non-essential US government personnel from Yemen due to the high threat of attack by al-Qaeda.
But Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the Philippine government is also not imposing a deployment ban or repatriating workers from Yemen as the DFA has only raised alert level 1 over Yemen, which means Filipinos there are safe.