MOU on Philippine workers won’t resolve key problems: rights group

The Daily Star, February 04, 2012, by Emma Gatten

BEIRUT: A memorandum of understanding and accompanying protocol signed between Lebanon and the Philippines doesn’t provide a solution to the problems facing migrant domestic workers in the country, a Human Rights Watch official said Friday.

“It’s a band-aid for one specific

Filipino Labor Secretary Sees Lifting of Filipino Workers Ban in Lebanon

BEIRUT—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Wednesday signed two agreements here to protect the rights of overseas Filipino workers in Lebanon and pave the way for the lifting of the total deployment ban on OFWs coming to the country.
Baldoz said the agreements she signed with Lebanese Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas would also lead to a Department of Foreign Affairs

Manila to lift workers’ Lebanon deployment ban

The Daily Star, December 30, 2011

BEIRUT: The Philippines says it is ready to lift a deployment ban to Lebanon adopted in 2006 when Manila signs a bilateral agreement with Beirut in January but has warned its citizens against travelling to Syria, the Inquirer Global Nation reported Thursday.

The news website quoted Carlos Cao Jr., chief of the Philippine overseas employment administration, as saying that the

Laws to protect migrant workers close: Philippines ambassador

May 05, 2011, By Simona Sikimic, The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Laws protecting the rights of Filipino migrant workers in Lebanon are “on the verge” of being signed, the Philippine ambassador Gilberto Asuque told The Daily Star Wednesday.

The implementation of the pending Memorandum of Understanding with the Labor Ministry would enable the Philippinesto lift the ban on the deployment of migrant workers that has been in place since 2007, Asuque said.

The ongoing government formation, which began with the fall of caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government on Jan. 12, is not acting as a major obstacle to ratification of the agreement, according to the ambassador.

“I’m sure that the caretaker Cabinet is acting on pending issues and I am just waiting for the Foreign Ministry to give us the advice on the arrangements,” he said during an interview at the Philippine Embassy in Achrafieh.

“[After two years of negotiations] the text has been agreed

Philippine-Lebanon talks may lead to lifting of deployment ban

The Philippine Embassy in Beirut is currently negotiating with the Lebanese government for a possible lifting of the country’s total deployment ban to the Middle East country.

In a release posted Monday on the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Gilberto Asuque said the embassy is working with the Lebanese government for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Labor Cooperation that will ensure protection of overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

Asuque said such measures must be in line with the requirements of Republic Act 10022, which amends the Magna Carta for Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos.

RA 10022, Asuque noted, outlines specific conditions that must exist in the receiving country before OFWs are allowed to be recruited and deployed there.

The Philippines has stopped sending Filipino workers to Lebanon in mid-2006 at the height of fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces.

Philippine and Lebanese authorities have been meeting since 2009