Philippines - Deployment ban on Filipinos may cause mass unemployment

A representative from northern Philippines on Monday cautioned the government against enforcing a deployment ban of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to 41 countries that do not have laws to protect foreign workers as this could result in massive unemployment in the Philippines.

Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano said a ban might also affect the economy which heavily depends on dollar remittances from Filipinos abroad and lead to a surge in human trafficking and illegal recruitment activities.

He said some desperate unemployed Filipinos would do anything to get a job abroad no matter how dangerous and serious the consequences would be.

Albano urged the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labor and Employment to initiate dialogues with the concerned countries to arrive at bilateral agreements protecting Filipino workers.

The proposed ban was contained in a recent resolution passed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, saying the 41 countries failed to sign international conventions protecting the right of the OFWs.

At present, there are some nine million OFWs working in at least 203 countries.

Albano said that implementing such a ban would not only affect the OFWs but also their families, noting the government has not offered alternative jobs to the OFWs who will be affected by such a move.

"Most of the OFWs had to borrow money or sell properties to produce money to process their papers," he said.

Cynthia D. Balana

Philippine Daily Inquirer

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