The Philippine government will soon lift the ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Lebanon and the Philippine Overseas Workers Administration will allow OFWs to enter in the said country.

According to POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz, the ban will be lifted when the reform package for OFWs bound to Lebanon was approved.

The package includes the wage hike of domestic helpers to $400 (or about Php 20,000) abolishment of placement fee and the minimum required age should be 21-25. This will be will be implemented after the board members representing the recruitment agency signed the resolution.

Meanwhile, the POEA administrator, due to rampant reports of illegal recruitment, said that they will coordinate with the local government’s Public Employment Services Offices (POLO) to conduct pre-employment seminar orientation program that will orient aspiring OFWs about the practices of illegal recruitments and updates about market realities.

The POEA reports unveiled that the highest incidents of illegal recruitment here in the Philippines is in Metro Manila, Cavite, and Ilocos region particularly in La Union. The agency partnered with Globe Telecom Inc. to help them disseminate information and warn Filipino workers who aim to land a job overseas against sweet-tongued illegal recruiters.

There are also electronic billboards set up at the POEA central office that display the list of latest job vacancies and also the agencies who were caught violating the recruitment and deployment laws.