A European business group has urged the Philippine government to loosen its currently imposed restrictions on hiring of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as many employers abroad seek to hire them for their skills.
Guenter Taus of the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines said that OFWs are frequently sought by employers worldwide due to their skills and English proficiency, reported ABS-CBN.
Taus made the statement following the recent imposition of deployment ban to Kuwait, Micronesia, and Libya.
Taus said that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA) primary mandate is not “to prevent Filipinos from being allowed to travel and work abroad”, adding that the country is the only country employing deployment bans on such level.
Taus cited an instance where Germany is in need of 200,000 caregivers and nurses. However, due to restrictions in hiring imposed by government policies, they cannot easily hire qualified Filipino applicants.
“We tried to fill that market but we can’t because it is difficult to get Filipinos to Germany because of all these restrictions we have with POEA so we are very likely to lose these jobs with beginning salary of Php170,000 and it rises to about Php250,000 in a month in year two,” said Taus.
Taus said that POEA should focus on the background of those hiring and those hired to ensure that OFWs are protected abroad.
In September, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) imposed a total deployment ban of OFWs to Libya as response to the Alert Level 3 raised by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) due to the escalation of violence in the country.
Another ban was imposed in Micronesia after the POEA received a report that health workers in a state hospital are not being compensated properly. This was lifted later on.
