The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) is strengthening efforts to document overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in West Africa as it seeks to establish a Migrant Workers Office (MWO) in Abuja, Nigeria.
A DMW team led by Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac is set to visit Nigeria and Liberia this week until August 19.
The visit aims to further deepen bilateral labor relations as directed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It also targets personal engagements with the Filipino community in the Western African countries, ensuring their safe working and living conditions.
“We are not really promoting overseas employment, but we always look out for the protection of our OFWs. Number one there is the safe and ethical recruitment— to make sure that our OFWs are documented and protected,” Cacdac said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The DMW plans to set up a MWO in Abuja to expand its presence in Western Africa and immediately provide assistance and services to the region’s growing OFW population.
There are 150 OFWs in Liberia and around 6,000 in Nigeria, where the majority of OFWs are employed as clerical support workers, managers, and machine operators.
“So if we have an office there, efficient the channeling of services is more efficient. Also through our AKSYON Fund it is easier to channel legal, medical, financial, and humanitarian assistance to OFWs in need,” Cacdac said.
He emphasized providing assistance to Filipino seafarers who encountered piracy and to undocumented OFWs under the third-country hiring.
The DMW has limited presence in Northern Africa through its MWO in Rabat, Morocco, which only covers Libya, Algeria, Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Tunisia as part of its oversight jurisdiction.
The establishment of an MWO in Abuja would expand DMW presence and assistance to an estimated 7,000 Filipinos in Nigeria and its jurisdiction in West Africa.
