Just a week ago, the POEA imposed a deployment ban to 41 non-compliant countries. Yesterday, an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced that they withdrew the negative certifications countries that reportedly failed to comply with the migrant policies that would provide sufficient protection for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) under the amended Migrant Workers Act.

This means that the government is temporarily postponing the implementation of the said deployment ban in 41 countries.

What urged the DFA to defer the deployment ban in 41 countries?

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary, Raul Hernandez said, “This deferment will give us time to revisit the 41 countries so that we can move forward.”

As violence continues and worsens in Syria, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) imposed a deployment ban to Syria. This covers both new and returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Syria.

The POEA made the announcement after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) raised the alert level in Syria to 3.
The POEA chief, Carlos Cao said in an interview, Carlos Cao, “Once Alert Level 3 is confirmed all over the country, the deployment of both new hires and balik-mangagawa (returning workers) is banned.”

Syria is in chaos because a group of protesters are protesting against the government and demanding the resignation of their president, Bashar al-Assad.