Update: DOLE Re-Impose Deployment Ban of OFWs in Bahrain
Mar 17, 2011
The secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Rosalinda Baldoz releases a memorandum that is asking the administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Carlos Cao Jr. to “immediately effect the deferment in the processing and deployment of all newly hired workers to Bahrain."
The DOLE secretary said that the deployment ban is deemed necessary after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) issued a new travel advisory for Bahrain. The new travel alert is raised from level 1 (heightened alertness) to level 2 (restriction of movements and voluntary repatriation).
The memorandum does not include returning workers from Bahrain. However they will be required to present an affidavit stating that “they know the security risk in the country but nevertheless voluntarily resume their employment in Bahrain."
There are more or less 50,000 Filipinos currently in Bahrain and to monitor the situation; the DFA is reportedly sending a team to this Middle East country.
Corazon Yap-Bahjin, the Philippine Ambassador to Bahrain, dispel reports that Filipinos is now the target of the growing violence there.
