SikhSpectrum.com Quarterly Issue No.19, February 2005
Filipinos continue to enter War-torn Iraq
Danny Chan
Philippine nationals continue to enter Iraq to seek employment within the country, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE). The emigration into Iraq comes despite an entry ban from the Philippine government.
Statistics obtained by the DoLE indicate 226 Filipinos gained employment at two US military camps, Camp Anaconda and Camp Victory, in Baghdad. Migrante, a migrant-workers organization, stated that over 1,000 nationals slipped into Iraq via Turkey, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The organization added it was disappointed in the government’s inability to enforce the ban.
“Ahe (overseas foreign workers) are desperate to enter Iraq because of huge salaries even if their lives are put in danger. … [T]he government’s failure to provide employment opportunities in the country also forced them to leave,” it said in a statement.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has issued a request to the country’s embassy in Baghdad to monitor the fate of all its nationals after reports surfaced that 53 truck drivers had entered the country illegally in late September. The foreign-affairs department also revealed that a further 27 workers entered Iraq after the ban was implemented. Another 4,200 documented Filipinos are currently employed in military camps and in reconstruction, relief mission and logistics work for the American-led coalition.
Ricardo Endaya, the Philippine chargé d’affaires to Iraq, said the truck drivers allegedly entered Iraq from Turkey to work for Turkey-based Kulak Construction Corp., a subcontractor for Kellogg, Brown and Root, an American firm. He added that the drivers are presently based in Camp Anaconda in northern Iraq, where 27 other Philippine nationals earlier recruited by Kulak are also based. Mr Endaya met with a KBR official to remind the firm of the ban on Philippine workers. He also cautioned Kulak Construction’s vice-president, Ismail Kulak, against employing construction workers from the Philippines.
The Department of Foreign Affairs also reported to the Presidential Anti-Illegal Recruitment Task Force on violations allegedly perpetrated with the assistance of APEX Manpower, a Philippine employment agency working for Kulak.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration had suspended contracts for Philippine nationals following the government ban in light of the abduction of a Filipino truck driver in July. The government pulled its 51-member peacekeeping unit after militants threatened to execute Angelo de la Cruz if Manila did not comply with demands that it withdraw all Philippine soldiers in Iraq.
The controversial decision to extract its forces drew condemnation from coalition allies, including the US. But the Philippine foreign-affairs secretary, Alberto Romulo, told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that its 4,200-strong workforce in Iraq represented a sizable contingent to Iraq’s post-war reconstruction efforts.
