POEA: No deployment ban in Algeria

MANILA -- The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said Tuesday that there is no deployment ban being imposed by the government to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) headed to Algeria.

However, POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said there will still be no OFW that can leave the country if he or she is headed to the North African country.

"We have no deployment ban at this time. But recruitment agencies volunteered to suggest to their foreign principals to temporarily defer hiring of Filipino workers," Cacdac said.

The labor official said the information was relayed to him after he met with local recruitment agencies.

"There are foreign agencies that have halted hiring and there are also employers, particularly those from the hostage-affected areas who are already undertaking efforts to send home their workers," Cacdac said.

A day earlier, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it is not necessary yet to implement a deployment ban in the said country despite the bloody hostage crisis that killed six Filipino workers.

On Saturday, Algerian forces assaulted the gas plant in a bid to end the hostage crisis, which begun Wednesday after an Islamist group seized the facility and taking in as hostages hundreds of workers, including foreign nationals. (HDT/Sunnex)