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The Philippine government has put a freeze on the
deployment of Filipinos to Jordan because of the rising number of
abuses there, an official said Wednesday.
“I received an order to stop
the deployment of [overseas Filipino workers] to Jordan and this is
because of the growing number of Filipinos in distress there,”
said Rosalinda Baldoz, administrator of the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration.
She said a special center for
abused Filipino workers in Amman was sheltering up to 150, the
majority of them domestic workers complaining of abuse by their
employers.
The abuses included nonpayment of
wages, maltreatment and even rape, she said, without giving details.
The government was arranging the possible repatriation of many of
these workers, Baldoz added.
Baldoz said the suspension would
only affect new workers and those who have old labor contracts could
still return to Jordan to finish their term.
In 1990, the Labor department
suspended the deployment of workers to Jordan due to numerous cases
of maltreatment and exploitation. But this was lifted in 2005 after
measures were instituted to protect workers’ rights.
Some eight million Filipinos, or
nearly one-tenth of the population, work abroad and their dollar
remittances sent back home are a major pillar of the domestic
economy.
The government has also barred
the deployment of workers to Nigeria, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan
because of security conditions.
--AFP
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