OFWS in the middle east

If I had been POEA administrator or DFA secretary, I would have banned all deployment to the Middle East and North Africa since Tunisia's succesful ouster of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January of 2011, when the Arab Spring has since spread from Libya to Syria. It would have effectively reduced costs of mandatory evacuations in case of war in order to bring back OFWs.

A summary of infographics chronicling the revolution in the Arab world has been collected by the Economist below. The region itself is becoming increasingly volatile, due in part to a more liberal and digitalized youth demographic.





While the safety of OFWs must be a paramount priority, at the back of my head, I'm starting to think that this is their own undoing. Six months ago they could have sold their land ownership in the provinces so that they can secure a job overseas. Funnily, they are now asking the Philippine government to redeem them from the violent demonstrations and fierce fighting in the Middle East and the promise of livelihood back home. In this situation, I think nobody won.