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POEA ends six-year deployment ban to Iraq


After a six-year deployment ban due to war in Iraq, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) lifted the ban on the sending of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) to that country.
 
The POEA Governing Board's Resolution No. 04 signed July 26, 2013, allows OFWs to apply and work in Iraq in certain places.
 
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, chairperson of the POEA body, said the board has agreed to lift the deployment ban to that country after the Iraqi government submitted a list of areas identified as “no-go" zones.

POEA chief Hans Cacdac said the 'no go zones” included  Anbar Province, Ninewah/Nineveh Provinces, Kirkuk Province (a.k.a. Tamim; Al Tamim; At-Tamim), and Salahuddin / Salahaddin Province.

“There is an existing Memorandum of Agreement Relating to Mobilization of Manpower signed between the Philippines and Iraq government in 1982,” Cacdac said, adding “that the POEA is instructed to pursue the conclusion of the Implementing Protocol for the bilateral labor agreement with Iraq as soon as possible.”

The Philippine government suspended the deployment of Filipino workers in Iraq in December 2007 because of war.
 
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has also included Iraq in the list of compliant countries under Republic Act 10022, effectively lifting the deplyment ban there.

The POEA said the DFA has lowered the Crisis Alert Level in Iraq to Alert Level 1 (Precautionary Phase), with mandatory travel restriction to "no-go" zones to be determined by the host country.

The Philippine Embassy in Baghdad has certified Iraq as "compliant with the guarantees of the law."

60 people killed by car bombs

According to a Reuters report on Monday, car bombs ripped through busy streets and markets in Iraq on Monday, killing at least 60 people in predominantly Shi'ite areas in some of the deadliest violence since Sunni insurgents stepped up attacks this year.

The 17 blasts, which appeared to be coordinated, were concentrated on towns and cities in Iraq's mainly Shi'ite south, and districts of the capital where Shi'ites live.

Militant groups including al Qaeda have increased attacks in recent months in an insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government as a civil war in neighbouring Syria heightens sectarian tensions.

The violence has raised fears of a return to full-blown intercommunal conflict in a country where ethnic Kurds, majority Shi'ites and Sunni Muslims have yet to find a stable way of sharing power.

In Baghdad's Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr city, police and witnesses said a minivan drew up to a group of men waiting by the side of the road for day work, and the driver told them to get in before detonating an explosive device in the vehicle.

Monday's attacks underscore deteriorating security in Iraq, where nearly 4,000 people have been killed since the start of the year, said violence monitoring group Iraq Body Count. In July, more than 810 people were killed in militant attacks.

At least 10 people were killed when two car bombs blew up near a bus station in the city of Kut, 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of the capital, police said.

Four more were killed in a blast in the town of Mahmoudiya, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, and two bombs in Samawa, further south, killed two.

The rest of the bombings took place across Baghdad, in the districts of Habibiya, Hurriya, Bayaa, Ur, Shurta, Kadhimiya, Risala, Tobchi and Abu Dsheer.

An assault on Abu Ghraib prison last week raised questions about the ability of Iraq's security services to combat al Qaeda, which has been regrouping and striking with a ferocity not seen in years.

Deployment ban in other countries

Meanwhile, the POEA has earlier lifted the deployment of OFWs to Yemen and Eritrea.

The POEA has deferred the processing and deployment of all OFWs bound for Yemen and Eritrea in view of the unstable political and security conditions in that countries in 2009.
With the addition of Iraq, Yemen and Eritrea, 189 countries and territories are now certified as compliant with the guarantees on the protection of the rights of foreign workers provided under Section 3 of RA 10022. - with a report from Reuters, VVP, GMA News

Tags: poea, iraq
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