THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) lifted Thursday the deployment ban on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Qatar upon the recommendation of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) in the host country.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that cancellation of the moratorium was also reached upon consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
“This decision was arrived at on the advise of Foreign Affairs Secretary Allan Peter Cayetano and upon the recommendation of Qatar Polo following their assessment of the situation in the Gulf state,” he said in a statement.
With this, Labor Attaché David Des Dicang and the Philippine Embassy have requested the sending of newly-hired workers to the Arab state, particularly to the Philippine School Doha (PSD) and Philippine International School-Qatar (PISQ) since the situation there has normalized.
“We respectfully request to allow the deployment so as not to hamper the operations of our Philippine schools and to allay fears of the revocation of their school permits issued by the Qatar government,” he added.
A total of 28 new teachers and 20 bus drivers of PSD and 51 new teachers of PISQ have pending applications with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
The Philippine Embassy and Polo have recommended the deployment of an Assessment Team composed of Dole, POEA, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), and the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of DFA to Qatar to meet with the government authorities and companies providing employment to Filipinos.
Likewise, the Polo is continuously coordinating with the Qatari authorities to discuss possible difficulties regarding the repatriation of distressed OFWs temporarily accommodated at the Migrant Workers and other Overseas Filipinos Resource Center (MWOFRC).
It also looking into the possible situation of Household Service Worker (HSWs) of non-Qatari employers, who will be left in the country or will be forced to travel with their employers.
On the other hand, the host country has assured the safety of some 240,000 Filipinos there and affirmed that they have the ability to withstand any possible economic shocks out of the diplomatic impasse with its neighboring Arab countries.
Last week, Bello ordered the temporary suspension in the deployment of OFWs to Qatar to secure the welfare of Filipinos in case of any eventuality due to the decision of some neighboring Arab states to cut diplomatic ties with the Gulf state. (HDT/VoxPop Philippines)