A HOUSE leader has called on the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and ship manning agencies to look for new markets for Filipino seafarers, amid continuing pirate attacks in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.
Several Filipino seafarers have fallen victims to attacks and abductions perpetrated by pirates, most notably the Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden.
Last March, two Filipino seafarers died and two others were injured in an attack by Houthi rebels in the Gulf.
In a statement, House Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation chairman and Bohol 3rd District Rep. Kristine Alexie Tutor said that Filipino seafarers would rather risk death, serious injury, or abduction in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz than lose their jobs.
“Those seafarers know they can never earn in our country the wages and benefits they have as crew members of foreign vessels. They also know that seafarers of other nationalities will accept the deployment when they decline deployment to that danger zone,” Tutor said.
She said that despite the dangers, demand remains high for Filipino seafarers, as manning agencies know Filipino seafarers’ courage, willingness and competence.
Tutor said that the DMW and other manning agencies should develop new deployment markets for seafarers as cash remittances from sea-based OFWs have not exceeded $7 billion, “$2.66 billion of which came from deployments to the Americas and their flagged ships, while $2.05 billion were from European deployments,” citing figures from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Moreover, she said that remittances from countries in South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa were lower compared to remittances from European and North American host countries.
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