INQUIRER.net
Posted date: June 01, 2009
MANILA, Philippines—The Council of the European Union has adopted a directive for the issuance and use of the so-called “EU Blue Card” which would facilitate entry and residence of highly qualified migrant professionals into Europe, INQUIRER.net learned Monday.
The directive adopted by the Council on May 25 would be effective in all of EU except the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark. It also did not limit the number of these special residence and work permit cards to be issued to migrants, leaving it to EU member-states to decide this.
In a move to address work shortages throughout the continent, the Council set up the parameters by which EU member-states may allow migrants to stay in Europe between one and four years, or three months longer than their work contract.
EU Blue Card holders, under the rules set by the directive, will enjoy equal treatment as Europeans in working conditions, including pay and dismissal; freedom of association; education, training, and recognition of qualifications; a number of provisions in national law regarding social security and pensions; access to goods and services, including procedures for obtaining housing, information, and counseling services; and free access to the entire territory of the member state concerned within the limits provided for by national law.
Designed to establish more attractive conditions for migrants to work in highly skilled jobs, the directive fast-tracks the procedure for issuing these cards first issued by France a couple of years ago.
Aside from the above-mentioned socio-economic rights, EU Blue Card holders will be entitled favorable conditions for family reunification and movement across Europe and back to their home countries.
“After 18 months of legal residence in the first member state as an EU Blue Card holder, the person concerned and his family members may move, under certain conditions, to a member-state other than the first member-state for the purpose of highly qualified employment,” the Council of the EU said in a statement.
The directive determines the common criteria to be set by the EU member-states for applicants of the Blue Card “without prejudice to more advantageous conditions provided for by national laws.”
After the publication of the directive in the Official Journal of the EU, the member-states will have two years to incorporate the new provisions into their domestic legislation.
There are about a million Filipinos (953,519) in Europe as of December 2007, a tenth (112,990) of which are irregular residents, half (555,542) of which are temporary residents, and a third (284,987) permanent residents.
Monday, June 1, 2009
76 Pinoy bus drivers still stranded in UAE
abs-cbnNEWS.com
Created 05/29/2009 - 19:16
Seventy-six of the 137 Filipino bus drivers who were victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking are still stranded in Ajman Province, United Arab Emirates, the Blas F. Ople Policy Center reported.
Susan Ople, president of the Ople Center called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to come up with a contingency plan to assist the drivers who have been stranded there since January 2009.
The DFA was also urged to cancel the passport of recruiter Connie Paloma, manager of CYM International Services and Placement Agency, on the basis of the subpoena issued by the Senate to be followed by a warrant of arrest for her failure to attend the Senate labor committee hearings.
Paloma was seen in Dubai “where she reportedly went to convince some of the bus drivers to withdraw from the multiple cases filed against her.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chair of the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment learned of the plight of the remaining bus drivers in the UAE through the Ople Center and from the wife of one of the bus drivers.
Mrs. Irenea Maniego said the drivers continue to languish at Ajman Camp while waiting for the issue of overstaying fines be resolved.
“According to Mrs. Maniego, her husband has accumulated the equivalent of P40,000 in fines due to expired visas. The non-payment of fines of the remaining drivers stands in the way of their eventual repatriation or in the case of 15 drivers, their absorption into the workforce of Emirates Catering, a Dubai-based company,” the Ople Center said in a press statement.
Carmelita Dimzon, administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) told the Senate committee that the Philippine Overseas Labor Officer (POLO) is still in negotiations with Al Toomoh Technical Services to pay for the penalties for over-staying so the drivers can be eventually repatriated.
Al Toomoh is the UAE-based partner of CYM International Services and Placement Agency which recruited the bus drivers.
The bus drivers lived in what their legal council, Atty. Reynaldo Robles, described as a “deplorable condition”. They were housed at cramped quarters near a garbage dumpsite with no electricity and running water. The food donation from concerned members of the Filipino community in Dubai is almost dwindling.
Robles urged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to resolve the administrative complaint filed by the drivers against 12 conspiring agencies. When this is resolve, the escrow deposits of the agencies can be used to settle the immigration penalties of all remaining drivers.
Estrada’s committee is set to tackle the third hearing of the plight of the Filipino bus drivers in the UAE on June 3.
as of 06/01/2009 3:44 PM
Created 05/29/2009 - 19:16
Seventy-six of the 137 Filipino bus drivers who were victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking are still stranded in Ajman Province, United Arab Emirates, the Blas F. Ople Policy Center reported.
Susan Ople, president of the Ople Center called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to come up with a contingency plan to assist the drivers who have been stranded there since January 2009.
The DFA was also urged to cancel the passport of recruiter Connie Paloma, manager of CYM International Services and Placement Agency, on the basis of the subpoena issued by the Senate to be followed by a warrant of arrest for her failure to attend the Senate labor committee hearings.
Paloma was seen in Dubai “where she reportedly went to convince some of the bus drivers to withdraw from the multiple cases filed against her.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, chair of the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment learned of the plight of the remaining bus drivers in the UAE through the Ople Center and from the wife of one of the bus drivers.
Mrs. Irenea Maniego said the drivers continue to languish at Ajman Camp while waiting for the issue of overstaying fines be resolved.
“According to Mrs. Maniego, her husband has accumulated the equivalent of P40,000 in fines due to expired visas. The non-payment of fines of the remaining drivers stands in the way of their eventual repatriation or in the case of 15 drivers, their absorption into the workforce of Emirates Catering, a Dubai-based company,” the Ople Center said in a press statement.
Carmelita Dimzon, administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) told the Senate committee that the Philippine Overseas Labor Officer (POLO) is still in negotiations with Al Toomoh Technical Services to pay for the penalties for over-staying so the drivers can be eventually repatriated.
Al Toomoh is the UAE-based partner of CYM International Services and Placement Agency which recruited the bus drivers.
The bus drivers lived in what their legal council, Atty. Reynaldo Robles, described as a “deplorable condition”. They were housed at cramped quarters near a garbage dumpsite with no electricity and running water. The food donation from concerned members of the Filipino community in Dubai is almost dwindling.
Robles urged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to resolve the administrative complaint filed by the drivers against 12 conspiring agencies. When this is resolve, the escrow deposits of the agencies can be used to settle the immigration penalties of all remaining drivers.
Estrada’s committee is set to tackle the third hearing of the plight of the Filipino bus drivers in the UAE on June 3.
as of 06/01/2009 3:44 PM
The UAE 76
The Manila Times
Friday, May 29, 2009
EDITORIAL
Seventy-six Filipino workers remain stranded in Ajman Province, the United Arab Emirates, where they were promised work but abandoned by their recruiter since January.
The 76 Filipinos are part of an original group of 137 workers hired as bus drivers by a Philippine-based recruitment firm. Not one has worked since arrival in the UAE but 61 have returned to Manila to recount their experience and to seek compensation.
Their plight dramatizes the continuing power of illegal recruitment and loopholes in the law that encourage spurious hiring and that allow the exploiters of hope to ply their trade with impunity.
The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a think tank on overseas employment and human trafficking, has taken the cudgels for the drivers and, on its representation, prompted the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment, chaired by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, to look into the problem.
During the hearing on Monday, former Labor Undersecretary Susan B. Ople, president of the center, described before the Estrada panel the circumstances surrounding the recruitment of the bus drivers and their daily plight since their arrival in the UAE.
The senators learned that the workers were hired by CYM International Services and Placement Agency at prohibitive placement fees. The workers’ financial woes were compounded by their inability to pay the “overstaying fines” for expired visas. Failure to settle the fines, which amount to thousands of pesos, have prevented the drivers from returning to Manila or from seeking other work in the province.
The head of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) told the panel that work on the payment of the fines was in progress. This wasn’t enough for Senator Estrada who ordered OWWA, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Foreign Affairs to develop and implement a contingency plan to get the 76 workers out of the province and out of their misery.
The drivers are living in cramped quarters close to a dumpsite, the workers’ legal counsel informed the committee. No power and running water are available in the shanties, while food is supplied principally by Filipino community leaders. A leading TV network recently filmed and showed the workers’ plight on one of its channels. Pleas from the workers to return to Manila arrive daily, the legal counsel said.
The owner of the recruitment firm has not attended a single hearing, prompting Estrada to issue a subpoena and to recommend cancellation of her passport. The public has not heard her side, but how long should she be given presumption of innocence?
Each day spent in despair by the Dubai 76 is a black mark on the record of the government offices responsible for regulating overseas employment, policing the recruitment business and protecting victims of illegal hiring. We should hope that the Ople Policy Center will continue to nag the authorities and that the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment would shepherd the hearing to a just conclusion and to propose legislation that would increase safeguards for worksite toilers and jobseekers and sanctions for undisciplined recruiters.
Friday, May 29, 2009
EDITORIAL
Seventy-six Filipino workers remain stranded in Ajman Province, the United Arab Emirates, where they were promised work but abandoned by their recruiter since January.
The 76 Filipinos are part of an original group of 137 workers hired as bus drivers by a Philippine-based recruitment firm. Not one has worked since arrival in the UAE but 61 have returned to Manila to recount their experience and to seek compensation.
Their plight dramatizes the continuing power of illegal recruitment and loopholes in the law that encourage spurious hiring and that allow the exploiters of hope to ply their trade with impunity.
The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a think tank on overseas employment and human trafficking, has taken the cudgels for the drivers and, on its representation, prompted the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment, chaired by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, to look into the problem.
During the hearing on Monday, former Labor Undersecretary Susan B. Ople, president of the center, described before the Estrada panel the circumstances surrounding the recruitment of the bus drivers and their daily plight since their arrival in the UAE.
The senators learned that the workers were hired by CYM International Services and Placement Agency at prohibitive placement fees. The workers’ financial woes were compounded by their inability to pay the “overstaying fines” for expired visas. Failure to settle the fines, which amount to thousands of pesos, have prevented the drivers from returning to Manila or from seeking other work in the province.
The head of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) told the panel that work on the payment of the fines was in progress. This wasn’t enough for Senator Estrada who ordered OWWA, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Foreign Affairs to develop and implement a contingency plan to get the 76 workers out of the province and out of their misery.
The drivers are living in cramped quarters close to a dumpsite, the workers’ legal counsel informed the committee. No power and running water are available in the shanties, while food is supplied principally by Filipino community leaders. A leading TV network recently filmed and showed the workers’ plight on one of its channels. Pleas from the workers to return to Manila arrive daily, the legal counsel said.
The owner of the recruitment firm has not attended a single hearing, prompting Estrada to issue a subpoena and to recommend cancellation of her passport. The public has not heard her side, but how long should she be given presumption of innocence?
Each day spent in despair by the Dubai 76 is a black mark on the record of the government offices responsible for regulating overseas employment, policing the recruitment business and protecting victims of illegal hiring. We should hope that the Ople Policy Center will continue to nag the authorities and that the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment would shepherd the hearing to a just conclusion and to propose legislation that would increase safeguards for worksite toilers and jobseekers and sanctions for undisciplined recruiters.
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