Overseas Filipino workers (OFW) may still have to wait until the end of the week before they could be allowed to travel to Oman, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
This even after the Omani government decided to start allowing Filipinos to enter Oman last Wednesday.
At a virtual briefing, DOLE spokesman Rolly Francia disclosed the Omani government already sent a letter to Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III indicating it would start admitting traveling Filipinos, including OFW and tourists.
In response to the letter, Bello authorized the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to start sending OFWs to Oman again as soon as the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) issues the necessary clearance.
POEA imposed a temporary deployment suspension to Oman last June after it stopped allowing Filipinos from entering its territories.
Francia said the clearance might be issued after the government’s newly extended travel restriction for inbound travelers coming from Oman and nine other countries, which have confirmed cases of the Covid Delta variant expires on Saturday.
Last Tuesday, the IATF issued the resolution, which reset the deadline for the effectiveness of the travel restriction from August 31, 2021 to September 5, 2021 as part of the government efforts to minimize the risk of Covid-19 entering the country.
“As soon as the effect of the new extension lapse then that will be the time that we reciprocate with our own lifting of the ban through the POEA,” Francia said.