As mass protests continue to creep across Middle East and North African countries from Tunisia to Syria since early this year, diplomatic and labor officials feared there will be an exodus of an estimated 3 million Filipino workers returning home and joining the swelling ranks of the unemployed.
The so-called Arab Spring protests revealed another side of the oil-rich nations, home to many foreign workers but with a high rate of youth unemployment as well as the absence of press freedom and democracy.
But the often-violent protests did not scare these workers as the majority of them refuse to leave their jobs amid mandatory repatriation orders from the government.
Labor attachés and embassy staff who were directed by the Departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Labor and Employment (DOLE) even found themselves caught in a dire situation as they bravely trooped to risky areas to locate Filipino workers and convince them to get out due to the worsening security situation in those countries.
DFA figures issued in December showed that despite mandatory repatriation orders, only 93 Filipino workers from Egypt went home, 282 from Yemen and 434 from Syria. Libya had the highest number of repatriated Filipino workers at 10,087 as the repatriation process was coordinated with their employers, like oil firms and government hospitals.
Despite the figures, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario believes that the government was successful in keeping the Filipinos in conflict-affected Arab countries out of harm’s way.
The measure of success, according to del Rosario, is evident in the fact that “there were no Filipino casualties in those Arab countries that have suffered mass death and violence.”
Losses from remittances
More than securing its nationals from the conflict-stricken Arab region, the Philippines, whose economic lifeline is heavily dependent on the earnings of OFWs, also fears the possible loss in remittances due to mass displacement of workers from these oil-rich countries.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz early this year told a Senate Hearing of the Committee on Foreign Affairs that the government stands to lose some $1.6 billion in annual remittances due to mass displacement of Filipino workers in those Arab countries.
She said possible losses include $381,000 estimated annual remittances from some 6,000 workers in Egypt; and $1.045 million from some 23,713 workers in Libya, half of them have been repatriated between March and April 2011.
Highly skilled Filipino workers from Bahrain, estimated at 50,695, send the highest amount of annual remittances among the conflict-affected countries in the Arab world with $157.2 million; $55.7 million from 32,896 Filipinos in Oman; $3.1 million annually from Jordan; and $35 million from 19,444 Filipinos in Yemen.
Uncertain future
But despite the lingering Arab crisis now mounting in Syria, these Filipino workers still chose to bear the brunt of living in the danger zones than face an uncertain future in the Philippines due to lack of job and livelihood opportunities.
In Syria, the government continues to appeal to Filipinos there to head back home as clashes escalate. However, as of December 29, the DFA lamented that only 434 of the registered 5,000 Filipino workers have availed themselves of the government’s repatriation program that provides them free airline tickets.
The number of Filipinos in the tension-gripped country is estimated to reach as much as 70,000 as most of them entered Syria amid the ban on the deployment of household service workers. The ban was imposed due to rampant cases of abuses against female househelp.
Del Rosario said for 2011 alone, the department under the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) funds spent P304.3 million to shoulder the repatriation of Filipinos from Arab nations, as well as medical expenses and repatriation of remains of Filipinos who were either injured or who perished in the devastating tsunami and earthquake in Japan and Christchurch in New Zealand.
“We are appealing to our kababayan in Syria to remove themselves out of harm’s way while there is still time by getting themselves repatriated back to the Philippines,” del Rosario said in a statement following a report from the Philippine Embassy in Damascus that the capital remains on high alert following the back-to-back car bombings there on December 23.
Jobs needed
At the heart of the Arab protests is the problem of unemployment.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) said the Arab Spring reflects the alarming number of youth unemployment in the region and around the world.
ILO Director General Juan Somavia, in his speech on the global crisis before the G-20 leaders who met in Cannes, said that young people are among the hardest-hit of the lingering global crisis, with youth unemployment just below 80 million or three times the adult rate.
“The continuing protests in different parts of the world share a common denominator: unemployment and income inequality. What is more, millions have jobs but lack the basic elements of dignity: rights, social protection and voice. Jobs-related protests have taken place in 25 countries,” Somavia said.
He said governments should strengthen inclusive growth economic measures that will generate decent jobs for the youth, warning “the situation could get worse” with the slowdown in the global economy since mid-2011.
“We are on the edge of a global jobs recession that could last a whole decade. And if we ignore the widespread aspiration for a fair chance of a decent job, the social and political consequences could be catastrophic,” Somavia said.
Key Arab countries hosting a huge number of Filipino workers like Saudi Arabia have stepped up measures to avert similar tensions in their territories. At the height of the Arab Spring, the Saudi government announced the Saudization program that mandates foreign and local companies to prioritize hiring of Saudi nationals over foreign workers.
Such a measure has direct impact for the Philippines as Saudi hosts the biggest number of Filipino migrant workers estimated at 1.2 million. They comprise highly paid professionals like engineers, architects, doctors and nurses.
Del Rosario, who earlier met with Saudi officials on the issue of Saudization and Saudi ban on Filipino household helpers, said he respects the decision of the Saudi government over the implementation of the programs. However, he expressed confidence that Filipino workers already working there will not be displaced as they are fit for the manpower needs of the foreign companies in Saudi.
Still, the governments of the Philippines and Saudi continue to negotiate for a middle ground to lift the Saudi ban on Filipino maids due to the restrictive measures imposed by the Philippine government based on the amended Migrant Workers Protection Act. The law has imposed a minimum monthly salary of $400 for Filipino household helpers and some security requirement for Saudi employers like full disclosure of their identity and address to ensure that the government can pursue them in cases of abuses against their Filipino maids.
The imposition of the new law has prompted the Saudi government to ban the hiring of Filipino maids to Saudi in early July 2011. That ban has not been lifted but del Rosario has assured that bilateral negotiation to resolve the matter is on track.
Administrator Carlos Cao Jr. of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), meanwhile, said despite the Saudization and the ban on Filipino maids, the annual remittances from Filipino migrant workers continue to increase.
“The imposition of strict measures for deployment of Filipino [maids] to Saudi and a ceiling for their salary seeks to end the harrowing abuses of female Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia,” said Cao. “We are able to weather that with an increase in the demand for more skilled Filipino workers and professionals in other Middle East countries. I believe we should maintain our stand in the imposition of protective measures for our workers overseas.”
He said the partial lifting of the deployment ban of Filipino workers in Iraq and Afghanistan would likely improve the situation of Filipinos in the Arab region.
The Arab uprisings have indeed opened the eyes of the international community on the lingering problems on unemployment, massive discontent amid decades of dictatorial rule and the lack of democracy and freedom.
Many Western nations driven by economic interests to gain influence in the oil-rich countries have taken positions against these dictators like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Libya’s fallen dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
But as one of the top sending countries of migrant workers to these Arab countries, the Philippines has not taken any political stand on any of these conflicts and uprisings that have spread across the region because of the presence of some 3 million Filipino workers whose rights and welfare form critical part in the diplomacy.
IN PHOTO --Some of the 186 passengers of a chartered Egyptian plane that brought the Ofws from Cairo to the Philippines in March. --Recto Mercene
