Govt probes reports of workers smuggled into Iraq

MANILA (AFP) - President Gloria Arroyo has ordered an investigation into reports that Filipino workers were forced to go to Iraq to work on the US embassy there despite a ban on them travelling there, her top aide said Wednesday.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs was instructed to immediately send a team to the Middle East for the purpose of straightening out the situation," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.

Ermita's comments were in reaction to testimony at a US Congressional hearing that a company, First Kuwaiti, contracted to build the US embassy in Iraq had smuggled 51 Filipinos into the country against their will, telling them they would be working on hotels in Dubai.

"As far as the Department of Foreign Affairs is concerned, the First Kuwaiti Trading Co. has a contract with US contingent in Iraq, and it is this First Kuwaiti Trading Co. that probably would have to take responsibility for what is happening," Ermita said.