Poor employment opportunities

AFILIPINA domestic worker was raped and killed – and her body set on fire – in Kuwait last month. Actually, many more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are at risk in various parts of the world. In a country that has millions of its population working abroad – many undocumented – a rise in the number of OFWs in precarious situations is a glaring reality.

At least a thousand OFWs leave daily to work abroad because of unemployment here. For every OFW, it is not a choice but a requisite to leave the Philippines for their family to survive. It’s an adjustment to the inability of the government to create jobs for the millions unemployed.

For as long as no local jobs are available, the government’s main recourse is to once again seek markets abroad despite the ongoing global economic crisis that continues to displace thousands of OFWs. Compounding the problem is the steady stream of OFWs fleeing the violence such as in the volatile Middle East.

What is the government doing to help them find employment here?

The government’s domestic job generation must be enhanced for sure. But according to the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno, what the government has been doing is create informal jobs.

Returning OFWs may end up in lowpaying and temporary jobs, or suffer from having no jobs at all, thereby bloating the already huge unemployment figures.

Quite tragically, the poor employment opportunities at home which push them to seek decent livelihood in other countries will still be their final destination. T ragic, indeed.