OFWs in Iraq Can Now Come Home for Christmas as DFA OKs Selective Balik Manggagawa Coverage

15 December 2017 — Filipinos working in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq can now spend their Christmas in the Philippines after the Department of Foreign Affairs approved a proposal that would finally allow them to fly home to visit their loved ones and then return to their jobs.

In a statement, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano said he has approved the proposal of the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad to allow Filipinos working in Iraq to be covered under the Balik Manggagawa program as long as their employers could guarantee their safety and security.

“After more than three years of waiting, our kababayans in Iraq will now have the opportunity to be reunited with their families in the Philippines without having to worry about not being able to return to their jobs in Baghdad, Basra, and other safe locations there,” Secretary Cayetano said after signing the letter formally endorsing the proposal for the approval of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III.

Secretary Cayetano said Secretary Bello had expressed his full support for the selective Balik Manggagawa coverage for Filipino workers in Iraq when he discussed the proposal with him in Manila a few weeks ago.

The move is expected to benefit some of the estimated 1,000 Filipinos working in Baghdad, Basra and other areas who, unlike workers in Afghanistan and Libya, have not been able to return to the Philippines since 2014 when Manila placed Iraq under Crisis Alert Level IV (Mandatory Repatriation) and suspended the deployment of new workers after the Islamic State captured Mosul and other key cities and threatened to overrun Baghdad and Erbil.

“Our decision to approve the request of our kababayans in Iraq is based largely on humanitarian grounds and is similar to what has been granted to our other kababayans working in Afghanistan and Libya,” Secretary Cayetano said.

The Secretary, however, clarified that the move does not lift the current ban on the deployment of new workers nor will it lower the current alert level for Iraq.

In approving the recommendation, Secretary Cayetano said he took note of the reports not just of the Embassy but also of the assessment team from the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs and the Office of Middle East and Africa Affairs that visited Iraq on the improved security situation in Baghdad and other parts of the country as a result of the recent victories by the Iraqi Government against the Islamic State.

Secretary Cayetano said the proposed exemption will cover Filipinos who are registered with the Embassy in Baghdad and who are employed by Filipino, foreign and Iraqi companies with existing contracts with the Iraqi government; the United States government and those of member-states of the International Coalition; and the United Nations, other international organizations and non-government organizations.

It will also cover those employed as private staff by foreign diplomats assigned in Baghdad and ranking officials of the Iraqi Government provided that such employers have no pending labor-related cases as certified by the Philippine Embassy.

Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Elmer G. Cato, who initiated the proposal, said the exemption will benefit Filipinos working and living in secured compounds in the provinces of Babil, Baghdad, Basra, Dhiqar, Karbala, Maysan, Muthanna, Najaf, Qadisiyah, Saladin, Wasit, and other areas that are certified as safe by the Embassy.

“One of the conditions before a Filipino can avail himself of Balik Manggagawa coverage is for his employer to bring him to the nearest airport and back to their premises using secured non-public transportation,” Chargé d’Affaires Cato said.

Filipino workers who meet thisrequirements must submit an official letter from the employer to the Embassy containing relevant information about the employee and requesting that said employee be included in the coverage of the Balik Manggagawa Program, along with the following documents:

• Signed employment contract in English;
• Employee and next of kin information sheet;
• Copy of Employee’s passport and iqama;
• Certificate from Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs that employer has been paying employee’s social security contributions;
• Certificate of no pending labor-related case from the Embassy;
• Certificate of undertaking for demobilization, evacuation and repatriation of Filipino employee and provision of direct and secured transportation from working premises to or from the nearest airport;
• Payment of certification, authentication, and other fees.

The Embassy shall provide the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on a regular basis with the list of Filipino workers who have applied for Balik Manggagawa coverage.  In order to travel back to Iraq, Filipino workers covered by the exemption are required to submit to the POEA a certificate of exemption from the Embassy and copies of the other requirements for the issuance of an Overseas Employment Certificates (OECs). END