Deployment ban to Lebanon stays—labor chief

Deployment ban to Lebanon stays—labor chief

As well as in Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 13:35:00 03/26/2009

Filed Under: Migration, Overseas Employment, Health and Safety at Work, War

MANILA, Philippines—Despite the recommendation of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the ban on sending Filipino workers to Lebanon stays, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque told INQUIRER.net Thursday.

In a phone interview, Roque said the lifting of the ban would depend on a memorandum of agreement the Philippines sent to Lebanon three weeks ago for the protection of Filipino workers there.

“The ban is still there. If Lebanon signs the MoA, I will immediately sign the order lifting the ban…The ball is in their court,” he said.

A DFA security assessment favors the lifting of the deployment ban, but the MoA sets the terms and conditions for the employment of Filipinos in the Middle East country, he said.

Manila imposed the deployment ban in 2006, at the height of the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Roque said that aside from household service workers, Lebanon may hire more hotel workers once the ban is lifted.

On the three other countries where the work prohibition remains in force, the labor chief said the DFA assessment of the security situation in Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Iraq has not changed, saying the situation there is still dangerous for Filipinos.

“The problem in Nigeria is there is no border control between the north and the south,” he said.

Filipinos in Nigeria have repeatedly petitioned the Philippine government to lift the ban, arguing that the security situation in the north is relatively peaceful.

Most of the kidnappings in Nigeria happen in the oil refineries in the southern part of the country.

“Definitely, the ban stays in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Roque said.

Special Envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu recently went to Lebanon and Nigeria to really find out the situation on the ground.

But while the DFA assesses the security situation in these conflict-ridden areas, the labor department has the final say on deployment of Filipino workers.