Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are allowed for deployment to 188 countries that complied with the Republic Act 10022, also called the amended Migrant Workers Act.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) issued a resolution that contains a list of compliant countries which are safe for the deployment of OFWs. As for countries not on the list, deployment to such places are not allowed according to POEA.
Section 3 of RA 10022 states that the government shall allow deployment of migrant workers to countries with “existing labor and social laws protecting the rights of workers; is a signatory to and/or a ratifier of multilateral conventions, declarations or resolutions relating to the protection of workers; and has concluded a bilateral agreement or arrangement with the government on the protection of the rights of OFWs.”
Countries compliant to the provisions of the RA include Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Botswana, China, Dominican Republic, Timor Leste, Iran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Maldives, Micronesia, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Serbia, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Syria, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Zambia among many others.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has yet to complete the review for countries Iraq and Libya.
The POEA has not yet received a certification for Monaco and Vatican. Partial or total deployment has been imposed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen due to the presence of armed conflict.
In 2010, there were a total of 1,470,826 deployed OFWs to various countries.
