Philippines likely to implement deployment ban in Oman

The Philippines may implement a deployment ban on Oman after Oman included the Philippines in its travel ban.

This means that they will no longer send overseas Filipino workers to Oman after it includes OFWs in its travel ban.

At a press conference, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) would hold a meeting this Thursday to finalize the decision.

“Ewan ko kung bakit, imagine yung travel ban nila includes OFW coming from the Philippines, including kahit hindi naman galing Pilipinas basta dumaan ng Pilipinas, kasama sa travel ban sa Oman and we received a communication from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the DFA also recommended to us that we will also declare a deployment ban sa Oman,” he said.

He said the governing board of POEA would hold an emergency meeting to declare a deployment ban in the said country.

“Wala namang kasalanan yung ating mga OFWs, bi-nan sila sa Oman? So, sige, kung ayaw mo sa amin, ayaw namin sa ‘yo,” Bello said.

Philippines likely to implement deployment ban in Oman

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced that they would be implementing an order from Malacanang extending the arrival ban on 7 countries until June 30.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente announced that according to an order from the Palace, the ban on arriving passengers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, and Oman shall remain until the month’s end.

“Those with a travel history from these countries within the last 14 days before arrival are also temporarily banned from entering,” he added.

He clarified that transiting passengers, or those who did not exit the airport or were cleared by immigration in said countries are not covered by the said ban. “They are not considered to have been admitted in a country if they are there for a mere layover,” he clarified.

BI Port Operations Division Chief Atty. Carlos Capulong added that existing travel restrictions remain in place. “Our immigration officers are on stand by and ready to service arriving repatriation flights with our kababayan from these 7 countries,” he stated.