MANILA – Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are still banned from seeking employment in Lebanon due to the failure of the Lebanese government to pass a law to protect foreign workers, the Philippine ambassador to that Middle East country revealed.
Ambassador Gilberto Asuque pointed out in a live interview with the Metro Manila-based radio station DzMM that no properly documented Filipino workers would be allowed to fly to Beirut unless the Lebanese government passes that needed law.
“The Lebanese labor laws only apply to Lebanese,” Asuque stressed. “We are letting Lebanon to draw up such law (protecting foreign workers) which is an internal matter.”
In June, the Philippines invited the Lebanaese government to send representatives for a second round of talks on the possibility of signing a memorandum of agreement of labor cooperation between the two countries.
Such agreement, Asuque said, was to protect the interests and welfare of OFWs to be deployed to Lebanon in the absence of the law.
But he said that since the agreement is also still being negotiated, Malacanang has deemed it necessary for the continued imposition of the ban on the deployment of OFWs.
As a result, Asuque reiterated the government’s appeal to Filipinos not to go to Lebanon until they are assured of protection.
In the same interview, he also belied claims that some OFWs who ran away from their Lebanese employers and sought refuge at the Filipino Workers Resource Center at the Philippine embassy in Beirut are being detained in the basement of the building.
The ambassador clarified that they are not detainees because they are not being imprisoned, adding they are free to roam the building. But they could not go out because they don’t have immigration documents, he said.
On the other hand, Asuque said that the detained OFWs are those who have been brought to the Lebanese immigration centers for alleged violation of the country’s laws.
He assured the government has enough funds to repatriate the Filipino runaways but those who remain at the center have problems with their Lebanese employers who refuse to give them the needed exit clearances.
According to Asuque, some Lebanese employers, before granting such clearances to the OFWs or any other foreign worker facing a similar problem, demand $3,000 to $4,000, representing the amount they had paid for their work permits, immigration fees and recruiters’ fees.
He also disclosed that 236 OFWs were repatriated from January to October this year.
Aside from Lebanon, the government has also imposed a ban on the deployment of OFWs to “danger zones” such as Iraq and Afghanistan which could not ensure their safety.
However, labor officials have admitted that many Filipinos continue to defy the ban, despite the grave risks involved, because they could not refuse the high salaries offered them.
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