MANILA -- Groups of private recruitment agencies urged the government to allow the sending of Filipino household service workers (HSWs) to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Dolly Uanang of the Philippine Manpower Agencies for the United Arab Emirates (PAMA-UAE) believed that the Arab country is a good alternative market for Kuwait, amid tensions between the Philippines and the Gulf state.
“We reiterate our call to DOLE (Department of Labor and Employent) Secretary (Silvestre) Bello for him to promulgate the directive to allow the accreditation of job orders to the UAE because it will be a good solution to this problem (Kuwait),” she said in forum in Manila on Monday.
Uanang noted that the working conditions between UAE and Kuwait are the same, making it more suitable for Filipino workers.
“It will not be that difficult to transfer our HSWs because the salary, the situation, rules on welfare and protection are the same,” she explained.
Uanang revealed that they received information that the DOLE is looking at opening the UAE market soon.
“We are praying, hopefully this week, there will be a very very good news about opening of the United Arab Emirates market for household service workers,” she said.
On the other hand, the Coalition of Licensed Agencies for Domestic and Service Workers (CLADS) also noted that the UAE culture does not differ from Kuwait compared to some Asian countries.
“For those HSWs that are Muslims, they do not want to apply in other Asian countries because of the presence of pork. It is forbidden for them to eat or even touch pork,” said CLADS President Lucy Sermonia.
In June 2014, the PAMA-UAE announced that it is stopping the deployment of HSWs due to opposing positions on employment standards.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) also stopped sending HSWs to the UAE after it decided to disallow the verification of contracts by the Philippine government.
For his part, DOLE Undersecretary Jacinto Paras backed the idea of opening of the UAE market to Filipino HSWs.
“That is a good idea in a sense that it will be an addition to the areas where we can transfer those that are in Kuwait,” he added. (PNA)
