The Philippines is considering to lift the ban on workers wanting to go to Lebanon as the security situation there has improved, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Wednesday. “There has been some progress in the (negotiations) of a bilateral labor cooperation agreement that may ensure the protection of the Filipino workers (in Lebanon),” said DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. Conejos said the Philippines is negotiating for a higher minimum wage for the Filipino workers, reasonable rest periods and decent working and living conditions. He said Manila is also negotiating with authorities in Jordan after it banned workers, mostly maids, from working there following reports of abuses by employers which forced many OFWs to run away from their workplaces. Quoting Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, GMA television news online said President Gloria Arroyo has ordered the DFA and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to lift the ban on Lebanon and left the DFA and DOLE to decide on the case of Jordan. Manila imposed the ban on the deployment of workers to Lebanon in July 2006 when the security situation there becomes unstable following intense fighting between the Hezbollah and Israel. The ban on Jordan was imposed in January 2008 owing to widespread report of poor working and living conditions given the Filipino workers. Cornejo said the ban on three other countries - Afghanistan, Iraq and Nigeria - will remain because of continued security concerns for the workers in those countries. “The government maintains the ban on labor deployment to these places. We ask the general public to respect the ban. Our purpose is to keep away our overseas workers from harm and avoid risks to their lives,” Conejos said. “For Lebanon and Jordan , we are in the process of negotiating the bilateral cooperation agreements. We are coming closer to signing these agreements,” Conejos said. He said the security situation in Afghanistan remains unstable. Last March 20, a Filipino carpenter was killed and another injured in a rocket attack in Kandahar. The same situation prevails in Iraq, he said. Labor deployment to Nigeria is on hold, especially for those seeking employment or passing the Niger Delta, the hotbed of militancy. Foreign affairs officials have warned Filipinos looking for work overseas to consider alternative countries “where their safety will not be compromised.”
