The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) last week adopted the recommendation of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to stop the deployment of OFWs to countries that lack laws to protect their rights.

The deployment ban decision was made to comply with the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act or Republic Act (RA) 10022, which only allows the government to send Filipinos to “countries where the rights of Filipino migrant workers are protected.”

Philippine Embassies and/or Missions have certified that the following host countries in the Caribbean are not compliant with guarantees for the protection of the rights of migrant workers: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Turks and Caicos Islands and US Virgin Islands.