DFA sends envoy to Iraq to assess security situation of OFWs

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has sent a special envoy to Iraq to assess the security situation of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) there, days after the United States (US) ordered the pull out of Filipinos working in the Middle Eastern country. Special Envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu left for Iraq on Thursday to assess OFW work conditions in the country and to recommend policy guidelines upon his return next week, the DFA said in a news release posted on its website on Friday. Cimatu, who also heads the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee, will meet with an inter-agency group, consisting of members from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency and the Department of Labor and Employment to determine what best to do with the OFWs in Iraq, according to the DFA. The Philippine government has been enforcing a travel and employment ban on Iraq since 2004 due to the volatile situation in the country as a result of the US-led war. Despite this, around 6,000 Filipinos continue to work in the area, DFA records show. The US issued an order early this week asking its military contractors to repatriate all foreign workers from countries that have issued a deployment ban to Iraq. Filipino workers in Iraq have long requested the Philippine government to lift the five-year travel and labor deployment ban to the Middle Eastern country. –VVP, GMANews.TV