Vice President and Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFW) Concerns Jejomar C. Binay today appealed to Filipinos seeking jobs abroad to heed the deployment ban imposed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on 41 countries.
“It’s not worth it,” Binay said, stressing the absence of adequate mechanisms to protect migrant worker’s rights as one of the reasons for the ban.
“Hindi natitiyak ang inyong kapakanan at karapatan sa mga bansang ito, kaya kapag nagkaroon ng problema, mahihirapan ang ating gobyerno na makatugon kaagad,” he said.
Binay, who serves as chair of the Presidential Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment and chairman emeritus of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, also cautioned the public to be aware of bogus job offers abroad.
“Maging alerto din tayo sa mga nangangako ng trabaho lalo na sa mga bansang nasa listahan ng POEA. Ipagbigay alam agad sa amin para wala nang mabiktima,” he said.
POEA listed 41 countries as “non-compliant” for their failure to guarantee the protection of Filipino workers as enshrined in Section 3 of the amended Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.
Section 3 requires that a receiving country “has existing labor and social laws protecting the rights of workers, including migrant workers; is a signatory to and/or a ratifier of multilateral conventions, declarations or resolutions relating to the protection of workers, including migrant workers; and has concluded a bilateral agreement or arrangement with the government on the protection of the rights of overseas Filipino workers.”
