DFA Seeks Exemption for OFWs Separated from Kin in Micronesia as a Result of Deployment Ban

 27 September 2018 – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is asking the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to exempt overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have families in Micronesia from the deployment ban imposed recently on the country.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano said the request for exemption was in response to appeals from a number of OFWs in Micronesia who were barred from leaving Manila for them to be able to return to their families there.

“We are making this request to the POEA on humanitarian grounds and for the sake of family unity,“ Secretary Cayetano said from the sidelines of the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“We hope to find a common ground with the POEA so we could balance the need for us to protect our OFWs in Micronesia while, at the same time, ensure that their families remain intact,” he added.

Secretary Cayetano said he has instructed Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Concerns Sarah Lou Y. Arriola to ask if it is possible for the POEA to have OFWs separated from their families in Micronesia to be covered under a selective Balik Manggagawa scheme.

The POEA earlier this month imposed the deployment ban on Micronesia for both newly hired and returning workers due to reports of abuses and maltreatment of OFWs there.

The POEA cited as an example reports in 2017 of OFW maltreatment and abuses that resulted in the blacklisting of the Chuuk State Hospital.

Estimates place the number of Filipinos working in Micronesia at around 2,000. END