Lebanon Evacuation

IN anticipation of the rise in the incidence of maltreatment and detention of Filipino workers in Lebanon, the government will be sending social workers to the war-torn state, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said at a budget hearing on Wednesday.

DFA undersecretary Esteban Conejos, also head of migrant affairs, said that because of the trauma of the war, they fear that the Lebanese employers might take out their frustrations on Filipino workers.

“We of course hope it would not happen but Mr. Chairman, the Lebanese employers just like our OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] were subjected to the trauma of war,” Conejos said.

“We hope it will not happen but we anticipate that some of them might take out their frustrations and anger caused by war stress on our OFWs. We might have a rising case of maltreatment,” he said.

The DFA official was responding to a query by Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo about the government's plan now that a ceasefire was in effect between Israel and Hezbollah.

Akbayan Representative Mayong Aguja asked the DFA if it was also planning to send psychologists and social workers to Lebanon to address the impending problem.

“Given the condition that you have pictured to us, don't you think that it's high time that we should fill out social workers and psychologists in that area? Because as far as I know, we've not posted any social worker in Lebanon,” he said.

Conejos agreed, saying that in fact, they intend to form “expanded legal, consular” teams to include social workers, labor attaches, and welfare officers from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Aside from possible cases of maltreatment and detention of Filipino workers, Conejos said they also expected other labor-related problems as a result of the war, especially in the economy of Lebanon.

“Why do I say this Mr. Chairman? The Lebanese economy has been devastated by war so therefore, we anticipated that Lebanese employers might have difficulty providing for the salaries [and benefits] of our OFWs,” Conejos pointed out.

Thus, Conejos said it was important that they should look at how far the conflict has impaired the ability of Lebanese employers to provide labor benefits to Filipino workers.

Conejos said another post-scenario plan that they were looking at was how to have an inventory of the Filipino workers in Lebanon.

The DFA reported to the committee that out of 30,000 Filipino workers, a total of 11,000 were out of the war-stricken country -- 5,000 of them on their own or with the families of their employers.

“We'd like to know where they are now. We'd like to account where they are and what their conditions are,” he said.

Conejos said these two problems -- the inventory and welfare of OFWs -- were “even more daunting” than the task of evacuation.

He said evacuation was a simple operation while the other was a “continuing problem.”