Lebanon Evacuation

MANILA, Philippines--Filipino domestic helpers in Lebanon who refused to be evacuated during the 2006 conflict between the Israeli defense forces and Hezbollah militants are now freelance migrant workers.

They are no longer working in households and have moved up to being restaurant workers in the capital Beirut and other big cities in the Eastern Mediterranean state.

Emmanuel Geslani, a consultant of several Manila-based recruitment agencies, said recruiters from Lebanon told him that many Filipino maids who opted to remain behind during the conflict finished their two- or three-year contracts and requested release papers from their employers to seek new jobs.

“They said Beirut’s economy is booming with the return of normalcy in the streets and many restaurants have reopened to absorb increasing tourist trade,” Geslani said, adding that the Lebanese recruiters would have been “very eager” to recruit overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) if not for the labor deployment ban being enforced by the Philippine government.

Geslani said he was able to speak with the Lebanese recruiters, who were visiting Manila, through the efforts of Abdul Kader al-Jadid, president of the Filipino-Lebanese Friendship Community.

It would be recalled that during the 2006 conflict, Philippine government decided to evacuate Filipina maids working in Beirut as Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon to expel Hezbollah militants attacking northern Israeli settlements.

However, from over 30,000 Filipinos who were then in Lebanon, only 7,000 accepted the offer to return to the Philippines. The remaining 23,000 to 25,000 decided to stay with their employers and were temporarily relocated to other parts of the country that were considered safe from planes and bombs.

Early this month, the Department of Foreign Affairs recommended that the deployment ban be retained because it was still “unsafe” for Filipino workers in Lebanon.

According to Geslani, the former maids are regarded as undocumented workers and Philippine authorities could not help them officially in times of labor problems. He said the Lebanese recruiters wondered why the ban has not been lifted when the situation in the country already improved.

“Around 12 million Lebanese are also migrant workers who toil abroad and sent money to their families. Lebanon is also dependent on remittances sent by their countrymen abroad which supports one-third of national economy,” Geslani said.

The recruiters said many of the erstwhile Filipina maids have been working as waitresses, cashiers and cooks in various restaurants serving Japanese, Chinese and European cuisine.

“These OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) are getting salaries from $600-800 US dollars and are considered as free-lancers. Lebanese businessmen consider them to be hard-working and honest. Some female OFWs have also married their Lebanese boyfriends to remain as permanent residents,” Geslani said, quoting the recruiters.

The consultant said he was told that some of the former maids even found jobs as secretaries to some business firms while those who renewed their contracts with their employers have been receiving double their previous salaries ranging US$400-$800 (P18,000-P37,000). These maids have been travelling with their employers to Europe and other parts of the Mediterranean, he added.

The Lebanese recruiters said millions of tourists have been returning to Lebanon and Beirut, which was considered as the "Paris of the East," and business has been booming in the country as many construction activities to restore bombed bridges and highways jumpstarted the economy.

In southern Beirut, buildings and apartments ruined in the war are being reconstructed with funds donated by Middle East countries sympathetic to the Hezbollah party, reports received by Geslani’s group said. Staunch allies Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also poured billions of dollars to the Central Bank of Lebanon to stabilize the financial markets after the 2006 war.

“They said Lebanon's financial managers who took a cautious and conservative stand during the past years are now seeing the fruits of their efforts as Lebanon economy is largely unaffected by the world's financial crisis,” Geslani said.

The recruiters reported a huge demand for skilled and unskilled laborers for the ongoing construction binge as Lebanon's population of 3.5 million could not fill up the manpower requirements even with some 300,000 foreign workers mostly domestic helpers in the country.