MANILA, 29 March 2003 — Hundreds of Filipinos in search of a better life are leaving to work in the Middle East despite the potential danger posed by the war in Iraq, the government said yesterday.
Departures to the Mideast destinations rose to more than 400 a day over the past two days, compared to a daily average of 263 over the past 10 days, the presidential palace said in a statement.
“The people and our contract workers in the Middle East are very calm,” said Roilo Golez, President Gloria Arroyo’s national security adviser. “Filipinos have no apprehensions on flying to the Middle East.”
The government said in the days ahead of the US-led invasion of Iraq that it expected about 10 percent of the 60,000 Filipino workers in Kuwait to be displaced. They are among 1.5 million Filipinos working in the Middle East.
However, as of yesterday, no one has seen the need to fly home, Golez said in the statement.
The government last week banned the deployment of Filipino workers to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel and Iraq following the onset of hostilities, but later lifted the ban except for Iraq after OFW groups denounced the ban as “stupid.”
About seven million Filipinos work abroad, remitting about $8 billion to their families every year, according to official figures.
Tourism Down
While the outflow of OFWs grew, visitor arrivals have fallen significantly due to the war in Iraq and a regional scare over a deadly respiratory disease, Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon said yesterday.
Prior to the war and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, tourist arrivals were up 7.7 percent from last year’s figures, Gordon said on local television.
“But we went down (to) five percent, principally because of these,” he said.
“This SARS problem in some areas in Asia has affected us. Our tourism figures in March have started going down the moment this SARS epidemic came up and the moment the war” broke out, he said.
He said travelers needed to be assured that the Philippines remains SARS-free.
Gordon said people arriving from SARS-hit countries are allowed to enter without undergoing quarantine, though they will be asked if they show symptoms of the disease or if they have had direct contact with virus carriers.
The health department said earlier this week that arrivals from SARS-affected areas would be asked to stay indoors for seven days as a precaution.
