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Filipinos are ignoring a Philippine government ban on working in
Iraq, a recruiting-company consultant said on Thursday.
The Filipinos enter Iraq via Dubai and Kuwait,
many to work at US military bases, including camps Anaconda and
Victory, said Emmanuel Geslani of Anglo-European Services Inc., a
leading employer of Filipinos in Iraq.
Philippine President
Gloria Arroyo banned Filipinos working in Iraq in July 2004 after a
Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, was kidnapped by local
militants there.
De la Cruz was released unharmed after Manila
pulled out its token military contribution to the American-led
coalition forces and some 4,500 Filipinos working in Iraq at the
time were allowed to work out their contracts. His freedom allegedly
had cost the government a huge ransom. Manila denied that money
changed hands, reiterating the government’s no-ransom policy.
“Many of the former Iraq workers were bitter
against the Arroyo administration for imposing the ban,” said
Geslani, adding the decision to continue the ban was
“ill-conceived” as security in Iraq had improved.
Falih Al-Assadi, the charge d’affaires of the
Iraqi Embassy in Manila, said the Philippine government should scrap
the ban as there is demand for workers in construction and
development projects in his country.
Filipino officials have conceded that the ban is
easy to circumvent and local labor groups have also called for it to
be lifted, saying it forces workers to go undocumented. Apparently,
the migrant workers are lured by reported high salaries that they
can get in Iraq.
Several Filipinos have been killed or injured in
Iraq, the latest in June when a man was killed and two women wounded
in a mortar attack on the US compound in Baghdad.
-- AFP
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