'95% of Filipinos working in Syria illegal'

By Philip Tubeza in Manila/Philippine Daily Inquirer | ANN – Thu, Apr 28, 2011 4:20 PM MYT

As the unrest in Syria worsened, Philippine Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz revealed that only a fraction of the 17,000 Filipinos working in the troubled Middle Eastern country are documented workers.

Baldoz said Overseas Workers Welfare Administration records showed that there were only 837 active Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) members or documented overseas Filipino workers in Syria.

The 837 are active OWWA members--women workers and household service workers, Baldoz said during a press conference at the sidelines of the First National Summit on Labor and Employment in Pasay City.

"This is one country where we have many undocumented workers," Baldoz said.

She quoted the Department of Foreign Affairs as saying there are an estimated 10,000 Filipinos in Syria. But official DFA statements peg the number at 17,000.

On Tuesday, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Carlos Cao Jr. gave an even higher figure--19,000, including 135 permanent residents and around 6,000 undocumented workers.

Labor officials have privately said that a rescue effort in Syria could prove to be harder because, unlike in Libya where most of the OFWs were documented professionals, many of the Filipinos in Syria are household workers.

"We might have to conduct house to house searches like what happened in Lebanon before," one official said.

Baldoz said that while a rescue and repatriation effort in Syria could turn out to be harder the government was already preparing the necessary measures should the DFA raise the alert level for that country and require mass repatriation.

Different handling
"Yes, we will handle this somewhat differently," she said. In the case of Syria, undocumented workers will come under the DFA's assistance-to-nationals program.

So far, Syria is on Alert Level 2 of the DFA's warning system in trouble spots abroad. This means voluntary repatriation. Alert Level 3 means mass repatriation, she added.

Under Alert Level 2, only returning workers would be allowed to leave Syria, Baldoz said.

Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz said the POEA was coordinating with recruitment agencies to help locate OFWs in Syria.

"We need the help of the agencies to locate the Filipinos as well as in shouldering the cost of the repatriation in case the need for it arises," Cruz said.

As of Wednesday, the labor department had yet to receive any request for repatriation from OFWs in Syria, he added.

On the other hand, Baldoz defended the government decision to require returning workers in countries torn by civil strife to sign a waiver stating that they know the dangers they would be facing if they return to their employers.

She said that is part of the requirement under the DFA's Alert Level 2.

Returning workers to Bahrain and Yemen, which are also on Alert Level 2, are also required to sign waivers.
Aware of risks

"I think the only message here is we want to be assured that the workers are really aware of the tense situation in the countries where they are going back and if they feel the risks are manageable because they have been working and living there," Baldoz said.

"That gives us some proof that the decision is based on his own personal knowledge of the impact of his decision," she added.

The labor chief said the waiver did mean that the government was washing its hands of any responsibility for the safety of the returning OFWs who execute such a waiver.

"Even those illegals who were able to enter are being helped," Baldoz said.

She also said that if the political unrest in the Middle East continues, it would continue to affect the deployment of Filipinos abroad.

The POEA earlier said that the number of OFWs deployed during the first quarter of the year dropped by almost four percent due to the crises in Japan and the Middle East.

Cao said their "preliminary data" showed that the number of OFWs who left the country during the first three months of the year went down to 380,188 from 395,189 during the same period in 2010, or a drop of 3.79 percent.