OFW Deployment Drops in Jan-June 2018
The number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployed in the first semester of last year declined by 67 percent, preliminary records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed.
As this developed, thousands of job opportunities are up for grabs for Filipino English language teachers as the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) prepares for the implementation of the bilateral labor agreement with China and a soon-to-be-signed agreement with Thailand.
POEA records showed that for the first quarter of 2018, only a total of 1.363 million OFWs were deployed as compared to 2.044 million for the same period in 2017, or a decline of 67 percent.
The same records showed a drop in the deployment of land-based workers by 64 percent, with only 1.025 million deployed in the first semester of 2018 compared to 1.595 million for the same period in 2017.
Sea-based workers declined to 337,502 in 2018 from 449,643 in 2017, also both of the first semesters.
Recruitment consultant and migration expert Emmanuel Geslani said the 2018 figures were quite alarming, specifically the drop in the land-based workers, saying deployment of OFWs might not reach the 1.7- to 1.8-million mark for the whole of last year, which is much bigger compared to the prediction earlier made by DoLE.
He warned the reduction in the deployment of household service workers would have a devastating effect on dollar remittances from OFWs.
English-teaching jobs in China, Thailand
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd disclosed over the weekend that an agreement governing the deployment of English teachers to Thailand might be signed in the coming weeks to meet that country’s requirement under its “English for All Project” in the Eastern Economic Corridor.
Under the proposed agreement, Filipino teachers will be hired by Thailand’s Ministry of Education to teach students at the primary and secondary levels in government schools.
According to Bello, Filipino teachers who would be hired under the program would receive 25,000 baht per month or an equivalent of P45,000, inclusive of housing allowance and other benefits such as personal accident insurance, round trip airfare and work permit fees, which would be shouldered by the Thai government.
He added that Thailand was also opening job opportunities to foreign professionals in the field of engineering, architecture, medicine, accounting and dental medicine.
Earlier, POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia said that thousands of Filipino English language teachers would also be deployed to China within the year, following the signing of an agreement and the joint implementing rules and regulations by the governments of the Philippines and China.
Olalia said the deployment of teachers to China and Thailand would be handled by POEA under government-to-government arrangements, which means that there would be no placement fee and no participation from licensed recruitment agencies.
DFA warning
For those seeking jobs opportunities in other countries, the department on
Sunday said they must carefully scrutinize work offers being peddled through
social media, following numerous cases of alleged human trafficking.
In a statement, the agency said that in 2018 alone, 17 cases of human trafficking were handled by the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
DFA added that the cases included a trafficking victim detained at Basra Prison in Iraq for the last three months, who was released on Wednesday for deportation.
Two more Filipinos were secured, while 10 other trafficking victims have been under the Philippine Embassy’s custody since January.
WITH FRANCIS EARL CUETO
Source: www.manilatimes.net