Arroyo told: Don't send OFWs to war-torn areas

MANILA, Philippines - Migrant advocacy group Migrante International on Tuesday urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to stop the deployment of Filipino workers in strife-ridden countries such as Georgia as this put their lives in danger. According to Concepcion Bragas-Regalado, Migrante International chairperson, the Arroyo administration has failed to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFW) because they are being treated like commodities under the government’s “intensified labor export policy." “What is questionable here is that why are there OFWs in Georgia, a clearly politically unstable region? Do we have bilateral relations with them?" she said. Georgia was recently invaded by Russian forces due to a conflict over Ossetia, which resulted in the reported death of about 1,500 people. On Monday the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said 33 of the 80 Filipinos in Georgia were evacuated to Azerbaijan, the largest and most populous country in the South Caucasus, located in Eastern Europe and partially in Western Asia. The DFA denied the claims of Migrante, and said that this was the only time that Georgia became unstable. “Georgia is a very progressive country. They hire many Filipino professionals, we have no domestic workers there," Esteban Conejos Jr, DFA undersecretary for migrant workers affairs, told GMANews.TV in an interview on Tuesday. Also, the Philippines “always have bilateral relations with friendly countries," according to Conejos. Georgia became politically unstable during the last years of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s when tensions between Ossetians and Georgians heightened into violent clashes that claimed the lives of hundreds of people. The southern portion of Ossetia is part of Georgia but is controlled by the secessionist Republic of South Ossetia, which is backed by Russia. The northern portion or the Republic of the North Ossetia-Alania is within the Russian Federation. Migrante fears that more OFWs will be affected by the on-going war in Georgia, including those in neighboring countries, just like what had happened during the 1991 Gulf War when the lives of 46,000 Filipinos were put at risk. - Kimberly Jane T. Tan, GMANews.TV