THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said deployment of new overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Myanmar will still not be allowed even if it downgrades the alert level in the restive Southeast Asian country.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Eduardo Jose De Vega said the department will decide in the next few weeks whether or not to lower the Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 2 as requested by some migrant workers’ groups.
“Pag maibaba ‘yang alert level to Alert Level 2, meaning restricted, ‘yung may mga work visa dati pa lang ang pwede. At pwede na din maglakbay ang mga turista at negosyante. Pero di pa ito back to normal at di pa kami mag authorize ng deployment ng new workers (If the alert level is lowered to Alert Level 2, meaning restricted, only those who have existing work visas will be deployed. Tourists and businessmen will also be allowed. But this is not yet back to normal as we will still not authorize the deployment of new workers),” De Vega told the “Laging Handa” public briefing.
De Vega said he will go to Yangon before the end of June to assess the situation, adding that most of the Filipinos in Myanmar are living in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay.
There are an estimated 450 Filipinos living and working in Myanmar.
De Vega said the 450 have opted to stay in Myanmar after Manila raised Alert Level 4 and suspended the deployment of new Filipino workers in May 2021 when violence and armed conflict intensified in the country following the military coup that ousted the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi two years ago.
The Myanmar military detained Suu Kyi and other officials and responded to the pro-democracy protests with brutal force.
Aside from this, De Vega also cited the issue of trafficking as among the issues the DFA is considering in the decision to lower the alert level.
“If there had been no trafficking, it would have been easier,” he said.
Last Tuesday, the Bureau of Immigration said three Filipinos, including a social media influencer with more than 10,000 subscribers, were repatriated to Manila after being trafficked to work as online scammers in Myanmar.
Since January this year, the DFA said it was able to rescue and repatriate 210 Filipino victims of traffickers who were made to work as cryptocurrency scammers in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
Of the 210, 90 were rescued in Myanmar, 52 in Cambodia and 68 in Laos.
Last year, the DFA said around 150 to 160 Filipinos were also rescued in the region.
