EU: No mass displacement of Pinoys in Europe
BUSINESS MIRROR | 10/22/2008 12:36 PM
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The European Union has assured that there will be no mass displacement of more than 950,000 Filipino workers in Europe despite the financial turmoil gripping even the rich economies in the region.
Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, head of the delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines, said although the migration situation in Europe is “becoming tighter,” there will be no displacement of legal foreign migrant workers, especially those in the healt-care sector.
“I don’t see any particular reason for outflux of Filipino workers from Europe. The situation is becoming tighter, but the tightening would have no direct impact on overseas Filipino workers,” said MacDonald in a briefing at the EC office of the RCBC Building in Makati City.
The EU is responding to the global financial crisis by implementing controlled policy on its financial institutions. But MacDonald said the move will not have direct effects on the remittances of Filipino workers.
Filipino workers, mostly those working as domestic help in France, Italy and Spain, usually coursed their remittances through money-transfer centers instead of commercial banks that usually charge higher transaction fees.
The EU envoy explained that the corrective efforts in the EU financial system cover those in “investment banks and mortgage organizations” and not those that concern remittance sectors.
“I don’t see any reason why that should have any particular impact—positive or negative—on the remittances of Filipino workers in Europe,” he said.
At the same time, MacDonald said the EU is trying to develop a policy that would make the sending of remittances “safer, cheaper and easier.”
“We want to facilitate the ease of sending remittances….We recognize the importance of sending remittances in the development of their countries,” he said.
The EU official, citing figures from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, said that as of December 2007, there are an estimated 953,519 Filipinos in Europe. More than half (555,542) are temporary residents, while 284,987 are permanent residents.
There are at least 112,900 undocumented Filipino workers in Europe who are likely to be covered by a new tighter EU migration policy that seeks their return to their countries of origin.
The new directive, among others, allows the custody for six to 18 months of foreigners who did not pass through regular channels and bans them from returning to Europe for a maximum of five years after their deportation.
MacDonald said Filipino workers in Europe who work mostly in the health sector will not be affected by the global financial crisis, while he assured that remittances from the Filipino workers in Europe are not likely to drop.
