The new Migrant Workers Secretary, Susan “Toots” Ople met with other government agencies to talk about several ways to safeguard the welfare and right of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW).
In an interview, Ople confirmed that she will be having talks with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to resolve the issues surrounding OFWs around the world, particularly in Saudi Arabia.
“Pinag-aaralan namin ‘yung naiwan na proposal and recommendation doon sa term ni [former] Labor Secretary [Silvestre] Bello III at mag-uusap din kami ni [DOLE] Secretary Benny Laguesma and I think kailangan ko rin makausap ‘yung bagong Secretary of Foreign Affairs,” says Ople.
According to Ople, the relationship between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia is undeniably good. In this case, she doesn’t want to affect the strong relationship of both countries as these issues are too delicate.
It can be recalled that Labor Secretary Bello imposed a household service worker deployment ban in Saudi Arabia following the number of workers who weren’t able to receive their unpaid salaries.
The Philippine Government held a repatriation program in 2016 to help OFWs return to their families in the Philippines following the economic crisis throughout the Middle East.
Although the OFWs were able to win the case filed over unsettled wages, they were still yet to receive it.
High Demand for Filipino Healthcare Workers
In another news, Ople mentioned that there is still a high demand for Filipino healthcare workers as well as seafarers in a lot of countries abroad. The high demand is due to the fact that people are starting to return to normalcy after some years of the pandemic.
“Actually, dalawang ambassadors na ang nagpahiwatig kung pwede nang dagdagan ‘yung mga health workers mula sa atin. ‘Yung ambassadors ng Germany at Singapore ‘yun ang pahiwatig sa akin,” says Ople.
Seafarers, on the other hand, are still in high demand. As a matter of fact, the situation seemed to normalize from the pandemic.
Aside from seafarers and health care workers, there is also a high demand for factory workers and agricultural workers in Israel and South Korea.
