DOLE partially lifts deployment ban to Saudi Arabia
THE deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Saudi Arabia is expected to increase after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) lifted its partial ban ordered last year.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said they are expecting more than 5,000 OFWs will be able to join their jobsites or employers with the new development.
Bello issued a memorandum addressed to the three Philippine Labor Office attaches in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In his latest memorandum, Bello lifted the suspension for the verification of new principal for accreditation of job orders subject for appropriate safeguards under existing rules and regulations.
The lifting of the suspension will allow skilled personnel like professionals, maintenance workers such as plumbers, carpenters, electricians and domestic workers, who have been waiting to be deployed.
The POEA issued advisory no. 133 suspending the following — accreditation of new principals; renewal of accreditation of erring foreign principals; and application of job orders/additional job orders from construction companies and mega recruitment companies.
The POEA advisory resulted in the loss of future jobs for over 5,000 OFWs who have been recruited by principals in Saudi Arabia by private recruitment agencies.
However, in the same memorandum signed this week by Bello, the suspension is not lifted for the renewal of accreditation of erring foreign principals and application of job orders from construction companies and mega recruitment companies.
The recruitment sector welcomed the new order which will increase the deployment of OFWs which had been reportedly very low this year with the closure of the European job markets, except nurses to the United Kingdom and Germany.
The temporary closure of Taiwan, due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in its major cities and some factories with Filipino workers, affected over 6,000 workers who were hired by local deployment agencies.
The Hong Kong domestic workers situation suffered the same low deployment due to some restrictions issued by the current labor attaché.
