The Philippines will lose out on as many as 3,000 jobs in Iraq unless it lifts a ban on its nationals working there, a recruitment agency said Saturday amid protests by Filipinos desperate to work in the troubled country.
A Dubai-based firm that had offered 3,000 jobs to Filipinos had written to the main recruitment agencies here warning it would have to fill them elsewhere unless the ban was cancelled by the end of the month, said an official at one firm who asked to not be identified.
On Friday hundreds of Filipinos held the latest in a series of vocal protests in Manila demanding President Gloria Arroyo lift the ban, which was imposed in July after a Filipino truck driver was kidnapped in Iraq.
The demonstrators reiterated they were willing to take their chances in strife-torn Iraq rather than endure unemployment and poverty at home, where wages are low and the unemployment rate is around 14 percent.
"Madam President, please allow us to work in Iraq. This is for our family's future," said a placard held by one protester.
Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the government was monitoring the situation to determine when it would be safe to send workers back but the latest assessment found Iraq was still "really dangerous."
Filipinos clamoring to work in Iraq should take into account the government's concern for their safety, Bunye said in a radio interview.
Truck driver Angelo de la Cruz was kidnapped by Iraqi militants who threatened to behead him unless the Philippines withdrew its 51-person security contingent there.
Arroyo recalled the force and the hostage was freed. Her action was harshly criticized by close allies, the US and Australia, who said she was encouraging kidnappers.
There are as many as 4,000 Filipinos still working in Iraq despite the ban, which labor officials have warned could cost the Philippines as much as 100 million dollars in remittances.
Workers are lured by the promise of monthly wages of up to 1,000 dollars, compared to an average wage back home of less than one-tenth of that.
There are about eight million Filipinos working overseas, more than a million of them in the volatile Middle East, and their remittances to this country are a major source of foreign exchange.
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