MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has suspended the deployment of overseas Filipino workers to India after the Department of Foreign Affairs declared the latter a “non-compliant destination country.”
According to Philippine Overseas Employment Administration Officer-in-Charge Bernard Olalia, the Philippine Embassy in New Delhi flagged the country for not being compliant to any of the Philippines’ three conditions for the deployment of worker.
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“The most important condition is that the Philippines should have a bilateral labor agreement with the destination country. Unfortunately, we don’t have a bilateral labor agreement with India,” Olalia said on CNN Philippines’ “Balitaan” on Tuesday.
He added that India has also not signed or ratified the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers, despite expressing support for it. The country also does not have domestic or local laws that protect the rights of migrant workers.
According to the POEA, there are more or less 2,000 OFWs in India who are mostly professionals and skilled workers. Olalia said they are not too worried about their conditions there because the OFWs “know their labor rights.”
Olalia also said the Philippine Embassy in New Delhi is ready to assist with OFWs should they need assistance or request for a welfare case.