Bahrainis prefer Filipinos over other nationals because of their work ethics but lament that the Philippine government has been slow in releasing their documents to work abroad, said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello.
"We had a very long meeting last night with the Assistant Secretary of Labor ng Bahrain. And he was telling us … he wants more Filipino migrant workers in Bahrain. Kaya lang nag-complain siya… ang sabi niya, while we prefer Filipino migrant workers over the other
nationalities like Indonesia (and) India, ang kupad daw ng processing ng Philippine government," Bello said following a recent visit to Bahrain. Processing of work documents for Filipino migrant workers takes six weeks while it takes only two for Indonesian and Indian workers, Bello said. Bello has vowed to work for more efficient processing of the deployment papers of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), hailing their "competence, patience and trustworthiness."
There currently are 16,000 OFWs in Bahrain, according to Bello.
