Migrant Workers Department seeks end to Saudi Arabia deployment ban

The newly-created Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) seeks to lift the worker deployment ban in Saudi Arabia, Joseph Morong reported  Monday on GTV's Balitanghali.

According to DMW Secretary Abdullah Mama-o, the ban implemented by the Department of Labor Employment (DOLE) in November 2021 was costing the government a significant amount of revenue.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III had imposed a deployment ban on household service workers due to unpaid salaries of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia.

To help affected workers' families, Mama-o said he would also present his plans to President Rodrigo Duterte in the next few day days.

Aside from Saudi Arabia, Mama-o would also seek the deployment of OFWs in Libya and Iraq.

He said he would meet with the Department of Foreign Affairs to lower the alert levels in these countries.

Mama-o bared that Libya needed oil workers, while Iraq needed OFWs to build its train line from Baghdad to Germany.

The DMW, based on its mandate, would now absorb the functions of various agencies such as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs under the DFA, DOLE’s three offices: Philippine Overseas Labor Office, International Labor Affairs Bureau, and the National Maritime Polytechnic research and training center; and the Office of the Social Welfare Attache under the DSWD. — Mel Matthew Doctor/DVM, GMA News