OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to arrive in trickles in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan even after Manila’s lifting of the travel ban imposed on these areas due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said only a few OFWs have left for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan since the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) allowed them to return these areas earlier this month.
“They [OFWs] are taking precautionary [measures]. Once they hear that there’s an outbreak of COVID-19 where they’re supposed to be deployed, they will opt to just wait for conditions to improve,” Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III told reporters in an interview.
Bello said this is especially true for OFWs bound for Hong Kong. Employers there, he said, opted to just extend the vacation leave of their Filipino workers.
The IATF-EID imposed the travel bans on China, which is considered as the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the three areas to minimize the exposure of Filipinos to the dreaded disease.
It lifted the travel ban on Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan amid concerns over the possible displacement of OFWs.
A similar ban may be imposed by Manila on South Korea where the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases jumped to 763 as of February 24. This makes South Korea the second country with the most number of COVID-19 cases worldwide next to China which has 142,823 confirmed cases.
Citing the recommendation of the DOLE’s office in South Korea, Bello said he believes that the travel ban is unnecessary, as the COVID-19 outbreak is contained in one area and Filipinos have already undertaken precautionary measures against the virus.
However, the labor chief said he will support the decision of the IATF-EID, of which the DOLE is a member, on the matter.