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Sunday, October 09, 2005
Pinoy workers in Iraq refuse to return for RP for Christmas: recruiter
FILIPINO laborers employed in the US military camps in Iraq prefer to continue working there even during the Christmas season than going home to the Philippines to be with their families.
This, after the 2,000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) employed in Camps Victory and Anaconda, the main military installations of the US in Iraq, are hesitant to take a two-week vacation this December because of the possibility that they will be barred from leaving Manila because of the unstable peace and order situation in the war-torn country, according to a recruitment firm official.
Manny Geslani, spokesman for the Anglo-European International Services, one of the recruitment firms tapped by the US, said the OFWs have been wanting to return to Manila for the holidays but they are afraid that they will not be permitted to leave after their Yuletide vacation.
He added that majority of those that want to go home are homesick and the chance to spend Christmas with their families is the only break they ask of their principals and the Philippine Government.
Geslani said the employment contracts of the OFWs concerned had already lapsed but their contracts were renewed recently by their foreign employers in Iraq. The OFWs were deployed in 2003.
"While they are not given assurance that they will be allowed to go back to Iraq after their vacation, the workers would rather choose to stay in the camps than go home and be prevented from leaving again," Geslani said.
Filipino workers in Iraq receive a monthly income ranging from US$800 to US$1,500 in Iraq, which is why the workers prefer to work in Iraq.
At the moment, there are an estimated 7,000 Filipino workers in Iraq. But of the number, only 4,000 are documented while the rest entered Iraq illegally through the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo imposed on July 2004 a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq following the abduction of Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz by Iraqi insurgents. De la Cruz was later released after the withdrawal of the Philippines' humanitarian and military contingent there. (MSN/Sunnex)
(October 9, 2005 issue)
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