MORE overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are expected to be deployed by next week as the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) lifts its deployment restriction for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
Last month, DMW Secretary Susan V. Ople announced the resumption of deployment of household, construction and other skilled workers by Nov. 7, 2022.
Recruitment consultant Emmanuel Geslani said around 20,000 OFWs affected by the deployment suspension since November 2021 are expected to benefit with its lifting.
“As of now deployment of land-based workers in the Middle East is still low with the closure of Saudi Arabia, which is the largest labor [market for] OFWs,” Geslani said.
“With the opening of the labor market in the Kingdom the numbers are expected to rise dramatically by the start of 2023,” he added.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), which previously handled OFW affairs before it was taken over by DMW, imposed the suspension due to the reported abuses of Filipino household workers as well as the non-payment of the pending claims of over 9,000 Filipino construction workers in KSA who lost their jobs during the economic downturn.
Geslani said the implementation of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Governing Board Resolution No. 5, series of 2022, which streamlines the processing of job orders of private recruitment agencies (PRA) will ensure they can accommodate more OFWs.
He said this will allow DMW to reduce the one to two months processing time of OFWs to just three weeks.