POEA allows redeployment of 'returning' OFWs to Yemen

Overseas Filipino workers who returned home from Yemen can now go back to their work there, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Governing Board said. In its Resolution No. 2, the POEA Governing Board cited the Department of Foreign Affairs' recent recommendation to lower the alert level in Yemen. "The POEA Governing Board issued the resolution after the Office of the President approved the recommendation of the Department of Foreign Affairs lowering the Alert Level in Yemen from Alert Level 4 in Sanaa and Alert Level 3 for the rest of Yemen to Alert Level 2," said Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, who chairs the POEA Governing Board. POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac issued an advisory resuming the deployment of vacationing workers to their employment in Yemen except for newly-hired OFWs. The DFA issued its recommendation last Jan. 9, the POEA said. Baldoz said the recommendation was based on the improved political and security situation in Yemen. Also, she cited the clamor of OFWs who have returned but would like to go back in Yemen to work. But she maintained the green light for redeployment does not apply to newly hired workers. "The deployment ban for them remains," she said. Cacdac, who is also the POEA governing board vice chairman, and governing board members Leonardo de Ocampo and Guillermina Gabor also signed the resolution. On Feb. 22 last year, the POEA deferred the processing and deployment of all OFWs bound for Yemen – as well as Libya and Bahrain – amid the unstable political and security conditions there. On April 6 last year, the POEA allowed the processing and deployment of vacationing workers to Yemen, subject to certain requirements, when the DFA lowered the Alert Level there from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2. But last May 25, the POEA again raised the deployment ban on all OFWs to Yemen after the DFA raised Yemen's Alert Level to 3. — LBG, GMA News