By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter


The demand for Filipino household service workers (HSWs) in Qatar is expected to surge after the Indonesian government announced plans to stop sending such workers to 21 Middle Eastern countries, a senior official of the Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) in Doha has said.
Labour attaché Leopoldo De Jesus said there has been an increase in the number of Filipina HSWs arriving in Qatar since June 2014.
He told Gulf Times that the trend will continue due to the increasing number of job orders from recruitment agencies.
POLO receives an average of 70 to 75 contracts of HSWs from various manpower agencies in Qatar daily for verification and processing.
About 85% of the total applications passed the screening and the remaining 15% may have failed the medical tests.
De Jesus said employers have also complied with the minimum $400 (about QR1,460) monthly salary for Filipino HSWs being imposed by the Philippine government.
Despite the huge demand, he said that they are still trying to control the number of HSWs per additional job order to only 25 per recruitment agency.
“We want to ensure that only deserving employers engage the services of Filipinos,” he stressed. “At the same time, reduce gradually the number of Filipino HSWs who are being deployed to the Middle East.”
In a recent conference in Manila, all POLOs in the Middle East were instructed by the Department of Labour and Employment in the Philippines to rationalise the deployment of HSWs.
De Jesus said only those foreign recruitment agencies which comply with the rules and regulations set by the Philippine government and against whom there have been no records of complaints from workers will be allowed to deploy Filipino HSWs.
Besides banning the violators, those with runaways will not be allowed to process their documents at POLO.
Some manpower and recruitment agencies in Qatar echoed the statement of De Jesus saying POLO had been very strict in the processing of requirements and documents of HSWs.
A senior staff at one agency told Gulf Times that this was one of the reasons why some employers (or sponsors) opt to hire an Indonesian HSW than a Filipino.
The processing usually takes about three months before a Filipino HSW is deployed to Qatar. The monthly pay is also higher compared with Indonesians and other nationalities including Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis.
“Many employers still consider the rates and usually take the lower ones,” he said. “But a significant number also prefer Filipinos for some good reasons.”
In his company, Filipinos account to more than 70% of the total number of HSWs and the remaining comprised of Indonesians, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans.
De Jesus also said that distressed overseas Filipino workers at POLO are being provided livelihood trainings to make them gain productive employment when they are finally repatriated to the Philippines.
“We ensure that distressed OFWs at the centre are being cared for and equipped with a higher level of skills to make their future employment better when they return to the Philippines,” he added.




Related Story