The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has suspended the deployment of Filipino workers to Israel amid escalating tensions and violence in the region.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III also clarified that the department did not issue a deployment ban of workers to Israel, as processing of at least 500 workers was ongoing.
“We have not banned the deployment of our workers to Israel. The processing of those who already qualified continues. We are merely suspending their actual departure while the tension is still high,” Bello said in a statement.
At the same time, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Philippines was prepared for the evacuation of Filipinos who intend to be repatriated as conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza intensifies.
In an advisory, the DFA placed Israel and West Bank under Alert Level 1 category, while Gaza is on Alert level 2.
“The DFA is on standby with evacuation plans ready to be activated as needed and as soon as the borders open and a humanitarian corridor is established,” the department stressed.
There are 29,473 Filipinos in Israel and 91 in Gaza.
Bello appealed to Filipino caregivers and health care workers to postpone for several days their travel to Israel to avoid the conflict.
“It will just be about a few days of delay. We just want to be sure they will be safe,” he said.
Bello said the deployment of workers to Israel would resume once their safety was assured.
“Once the bombings stop and if the Department of Foreign Affairs says it’s OK, then we will always consider deploying them,” he added.
The Labor chief also assured that those who wanted to work in Israel could still apply for jobs, but their deployment would be on hold.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) earlier said that some 400 home-based caregivers are bound for Israel this month despite the conflict in the Jewish state.
POEA chief Bernard Olalia said the deployment of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) was a government-to-government agreement.
“Our first batch (consists of) 400 caregivers. They are home-based under the bilateral labor agreement,” he added.
Their Israeli counterparts assured that these caregivers would not be brought to the areas affected by the tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinian militant group Hamas, Olalia said.
Israel needs at least 500 caregivers, he said.
Alert Level 1, the lowest security category of the government for Filipinos overseas, means there are valid signs of internal disturbance, instability, and external threat to the host country. No evacuation is needed under this level, but Filipinos must exercise caution and avoid conflict zones.
Level 2 refers to restriction of non-essential movements, and entails avoiding places of protest, and preparation for possible evacuation.
According to the department, the Philippine embassies in Tel Aviv, Amman and Cairo have existing contingency measures for Filipinos caught in the 10-day hostilities, which has killed 228 in Palestine, including children, and 12 in Israel in repeated rocket attacks from both sides.
It said no Filipino was reported injured or killed since the escalation of violence within the region.
In related developments, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a 75 percent reduction in deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers in 2020, which constitutes the lowest deployment number in over three decades, official figures said.
Furthermore, the number of returning OFWs reached nearly 800,000 by the end of December 2020, according to the government’s statistics.
On May 20, the International Organization for Migration Philippines launched the report, COVID-19 Impact Assessment on Returned Overseas Filipino Workers, which is based on interviews with over 8,000 returned OFWs.
The report, part of IOM’s global response to COVID-19 to better understand the challenges as well as the needs of migrant workers, shows that 67 per cent of the assessed OFWs’ decision to return was due to COVID-19, while a significant 83 per cent of OFWs were unemployed for an average of three months post-arrival.
The report also shows that almost half of OFWs had a 60 per cent drop in their household income upon return.
“The ongoing global COVID-19 crisis and border restrictions continue to have an adverse impact on human mobility with migrant workers and their remittance-dependent communities being some of the most vulnerable groups,” said Kristin Dadey, IOM Philippines Chief of Mission.
As Coordinator and Secretariat of the United Nations Network on Migration in the Philippines, IOM has conducted various studies on the impact of COVID-19 on migration to support policy makers and has provided direct assistance to the government’s repatriation efforts.
Hans Cacdac, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Administrator, expressed his appreciation to IOM and the UN Network on Migration in the Philippines for its efforts and cited that the report is useful especially in responding to unforeseen crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 Impact Assessment on Returned Overseas Filipino Workers will be a key tool in the government’s formulation of future policies and programmes for OFWs,” he said.