THE Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) yesterday allowed Filipino workers with existing employment contracts to return to Israel.
The partial lifting of the ban on deployment to Israel followed the lowering by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) of the alert in Israel, which recently traded air strikes with Iran, to Level 2 (restriction phase) from Level 3 (voluntary repatriation).
“We shall issue an advisory that Balik-Manggagawa workers that are looking to rejoin their Israeli employers will now be allowed,” Migrant Workers Undersecretary Bernard Olalia said in a briefing.
Still not allowed are to be deployed to Israel are new hires.
“There is still that partial ban pertaining to the newly-hired workers,” Olalia said in an online media briefing.
Under Crisis Alert Level 2, only returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), or those with existing employment contracts, are allowed to go back to their destination country to resume their employment, according to the DMW.
The DFA on Monday night said the alert downgrade was made “in view of the positive developments in the security situation in Israel.”
Migrant Workers Undersecretary Felicitas Bay said repatriation efforts continue, and government remains open to helping OFWs who want to come home from Israel.
In the pipeline, she said, are 12 OFWs today (Wednesday), 12 more on Thursday, and 26 others on Saturday.
“We shall continue to assist those who are willing to go home despite the lowering of the alert level,” said Bay.
She also said about 50 OFWs remain in two shelters in Israel.
“With the ceasefire that is holding up, it appears that we won’t have additional stayers in our operated shelters,” said Bay.
