Iraq asks Philippines to lift ban on sending workers
Sunday, 16 November 2008
MANILA, Nov 15 (AFP): Iraq is asking the Philippines to lift a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers there because it needs as many as 10 million foreign workers for infrastructure projects, a diplomat said today.
"We have a lot of plans for infrastructure so we will be needing...possibly 10 million foreign workers from outside Iraq. That's why we are so in need of Filipino help and experience," said Iraq's charge d'affaires Adel Mawlood Al- Hakimh.
Iraq is asking the Philippines to lift a ban imposed in July 2004 on sending Filipinos to work in that country, he said through a translator.
"We had a talk between our minister of immigration and Philippine officials including the Philippine labour minister. They said maybe it (the ban) will be lifted in the coming months," the Iraqi official said.
He said he expected the matter to be discussed by both sides at the start of next year.
Al-Hakimh, the highest Iraqi diplomat in the Philippines, stressed that there were already 15,000 workers in Iraq in defiance of the ban. Most of them are in the northern part of Iraq which is safer and more stable.
President Gloria Arroyo banned the deployment of Filipino workers in Iraq in 2004 after a Filipino truck driver was kidnapped and threatened with beheading. The truck driver was released unharmed.
Despite the ban, some 6,000 Filipino workers already working in Iraq were allowed to stay and officials say thousands more have entered the country to work.
The Philippines is the world's fourth biggest source of migrant workers, with about eight million employed in more than a hundred countries. Workers' remittances back home are a major source of foreign exchange for this country.
"We have a lot of plans for infrastructure so we will be needing...possibly 10 million foreign workers from outside Iraq. That's why we are so in need of Filipino help and experience," said Iraq's charge d'affaires Adel Mawlood Al- Hakimh.
Iraq is asking the Philippines to lift a ban imposed in July 2004 on sending Filipinos to work in that country, he said through a translator.
"We had a talk between our minister of immigration and Philippine officials including the Philippine labour minister. They said maybe it (the ban) will be lifted in the coming months," the Iraqi official said.
He said he expected the matter to be discussed by both sides at the start of next year.
Al-Hakimh, the highest Iraqi diplomat in the Philippines, stressed that there were already 15,000 workers in Iraq in defiance of the ban. Most of them are in the northern part of Iraq which is safer and more stable.
President Gloria Arroyo banned the deployment of Filipino workers in Iraq in 2004 after a Filipino truck driver was kidnapped and threatened with beheading. The truck driver was released unharmed.
Despite the ban, some 6,000 Filipino workers already working in Iraq were allowed to stay and officials say thousands more have entered the country to work.
The Philippines is the world's fourth biggest source of migrant workers, with about eight million employed in more than a hundred countries. Workers' remittances back home are a major source of foreign exchange for this country.