POEA: 37 Countries Forge New Agreements

At least 37 of the 41 countries that had been issued a deployment ban for failing to provide work protection to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have reached new bilateral agreements with the government, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said Monday.

Citing a congressional report from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on its second batch of certification, POEA Administrator Carlos Cao Jr. said in an interview these additional agreements will allow the affected countries to comply with the requirements of Republic Act 10022.

“We got a word from the DFA that of the 41 countries which were previously barred from hiring OFWs, 37 would be certified as safe destination,” Cao said.

Under R.A. 10022, DFA is required to assess receiving countries if they have labor laws, bilateral agreements, ratified conventions or other concrete measures to protect the rights of OFWs.

Based from this certification, the POEA will then allow OFWs to continue traveling to compliant countries and ban the deployment in non-compliant ones through POEA governing board resolutions.

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