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Special Travel Permits for Long-Time OFWs in Nigeria
Apr 6, 2009
The deployment ban in Nigeria remains but according to Vice President and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), Noli De Castro, land-based OFWs who have been working for more than 10 years there are now entitled to avail of special travel permits
De Castro added that this privilege is limited only for OFWs who are working in safe areas of Nigeria, not for all OFWs there.
The Vice President said, “This is good news to those OFW professionals in Nigeria who have been wishing to take a vacation back home. Their problem before was that once they go home, they cannot go back to Nigeria because of the ban. Now this has been resolved.”
In spite of the special travel permits to be granted, the Philippine government decided not to lift the ban on OFW deployment in the African country because of “real dangers and threats” to the safety of OFWs.
The proposal to continue the ban came from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) citing the newest hijacking incident in Nigeria that to led to the capture of three Filipino seamen.
Even if the hijacking incident in Nigeria mainly occurs only along its boundaries, the Niger Delta, the DFA still consider the place unsafe for OFW citing that it will be “extremely difficult to control the movement of OFWs” bound for other parts of Nigeria but would still need to pass by the dangerous area.
De Castro added that this privilege is limited only for OFWs who are working in safe areas of Nigeria, not for all OFWs there.
The Vice President said, “This is good news to those OFW professionals in Nigeria who have been wishing to take a vacation back home. Their problem before was that once they go home, they cannot go back to Nigeria because of the ban. Now this has been resolved.”
In spite of the special travel permits to be granted, the Philippine government decided not to lift the ban on OFW deployment in the African country because of “real dangers and threats” to the safety of OFWs.
The proposal to continue the ban came from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) citing the newest hijacking incident in Nigeria that to led to the capture of three Filipino seamen.
Even if the hijacking incident in Nigeria mainly occurs only along its boundaries, the Niger Delta, the DFA still consider the place unsafe for OFW citing that it will be “extremely difficult to control the movement of OFWs” bound for other parts of Nigeria but would still need to pass by the dangerous area.
