Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
Razorguns
Well-known member
Excuse me while i DON'T feel sorry for beheaded hostages in iraq now!
Filipinos Defy Iraq Travel Ban
Desperate for Jobs, Workers Make Journey Despite Severe Risks
By James Hookway
The Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2004
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110080546368078243,00.html
MANILA -- Despite the Philippines' efforts to stop workers from taking jobs in Iraq, thousands of Filipinos like Robert Tarongoy are risking death or kidnapping and going there anyway.
Officials in Manila estimate that 2,000 workers have made the hazardous journey from Manila to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities since the Philippines in July officially banned its job-hungry citizens from going there.
The risks involved in working in Iraq are very real. Mr. Tarongoy, a 31-year-old accountant, was kidnapped on Nov. 1 just a few weeks into a $900-a-month job. His captors are demanding a $10 million ransom and the release of prisoners in U.S. military jails.
But Filipinos' willingness to defy Manila's travel ban underscores in a poignant way just how dependent the country has become on overseas work, given the meager employment prospects at home.
For many, the search for work plays out every day in Manila's Luneta Park. Hundreds of merchant seamen and construction workers squat in the shade of banyan trees fanning themselves with their passports as music plays over loudspeakers in the background. Recruiters circulate in the crowd holding up signs advertising job openings.
At the moment, pickings are slim. Charlie Alvaron looks up from his chess game and says he has worked as an engineer in various countries and on a smattering of ships since 1988. The gaps between contracts are usually brief. This time, however, he has been stuck in Manila for two months waiting for a suitable job to come along. 'We should be allowed to go wherever the work is,' he says, 'even in Iraq.'
His opinion is widely shared among Filipinos who have little choice but to leave home to make a living. In August, police used water cannons to disperse hundreds of Filipinos who marched on the presidential palace to protest the Iraq travel ban.
On the ground in Iraq, there is plenty of work. Earlier this year, U.S. administrators allocated several thousand jobs there to the Philippines, the world's biggest exporter of manpower.
But no Filipinos will fill those vacancies if the Philippine government can prevent it. The Philippines ruled Iraq off-limits for its citizens after Manila withdrew its small peacekeeping contingent there to save the life of a Filipino truck driver captured by insurgents, who threatened to behead him.
Manila fears that having to deal with another Filipino hostage situation in Iraq could again strain relations with the U.S., which wants the Philippines to resist kidnappers' demands -- as Japan and South Korea have done. To try to prevent Filipinos from working there, the Philippines has begun stamping passports with the phrase 'Not Valid For Travel To Iraq' in both English and Arabic.
But the travel ban isn't working. Resourceful Filipinos are still finding their way to Iraq, often posing as tourists en route to countries such as Kuwait or Turkey.
'It's better to die in Iraq than have no way to feed your family here in the Philippines,' says Mr. Alvaron, the chess-playing engineer. His friend, Manuel Alo, agrees. 'We have a lot of experience, but we can't find a job at home.'
Their frustration is understandable. The unemployment rate in the Philippines was 11.7% in July, the latest available figure, with underemployment estimated at about 25%. Per capita annual income is a little more than $1,000 -- slightly less than that of China.
With its population growing at one of the fastest rates in Asia and its government struggling with a growing debt problem, the Philippines is likely to see more of its people leave no matter what the risks.
Filipinos who leave to work abroad -- about 10% of the 85 million population -- send home about $8 billion a year, a crucial infusion of consumer cash for the Philippines' economy.
About 4,000 Filipinos were working in Iraq before the travel ban was imposed, mostly as janitors or cooks at U.S. military camps.
Since the ban began, however, Philippine labor officials say about 2,000 Filipinos have managed to travel to Iraq, risking their lives for wages triple those paid elsewhere in the Middle East and 10 times what they could earn in the Philippines.
One woman interviewed by Filipino diplomats in Baghdad told them she was working at the U.S. Army's Camp Anaconda with 40 other Filipinos who sneaked into Iraq from Turkey.
'She knew of another group of 120 scheduled to go to Iraq through the same route in the coming week,' the Philippines' special envoy to the Middle East, Roy Cimatu, said in a statement issued early this month by the country's Department of Foreign Affairs.
At the end of October, meanwhile, immigration officials at Manila's airport intercepted 10 Filipinos bound for Iraq. They were heading to Bangkok to avoid suspicion, but one of the men accidentally showed his employment contract with Iraqi-American Development Co. All 10 had been illegally hired by recruitment agencies in Manila who would receive a large chunk of their salaries.
Complicating the Philippines' problems, these itinerant job-seekers might be particularly vulnerable to kidnappers. Critics of government policy, such as political analyst Alex Magno, say the Philippines' earlier capitulation to the insurgents made more abductions inevitable. The Philippines, which has its own militant rebellion in the Muslim-populated south of the archipelago, is seen as something of a soft touch.
In recent years, the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group that operates there has extorted millions of dollars in ransom payments from foreign governments for the safe return of tourists kidnapped from Philippine and Malaysian holiday resorts, according to police.
The latest victim in Iraq, Mr. Tarongoy, started his journey from his hometown, the southern Philippine city of Davao. He made his way to Iraq after the travel ban was imposed, traveling to Qatar as a tourist before heading to Jordan, and from there to Baghdad.
According to Manila authorities, he was illegally recruited in the Philippines by agents working for a Saudi Arabian company. Mr. Tarongoy's wife said he told her he was just going to Manila to find work.
Mr. Tarongoy's mother, Isabelitia, who lives in a shack in the middle of a cemetery in Davao, told local television reporters she last heard from her son on Oct. 31. She said he called to say he was fine, and not to worry about the sounds of explosions in the background.
'He said it was normal there already,' Mrs. Tarongoy said.
Filipinos Defy Iraq Travel Ban
Desperate for Jobs, Workers Make Journey Despite Severe Risks
By James Hookway
The Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2004
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110080546368078243,00.html
MANILA -- Despite the Philippines' efforts to stop workers from taking jobs in Iraq, thousands of Filipinos like Robert Tarongoy are risking death or kidnapping and going there anyway.
Officials in Manila estimate that 2,000 workers have made the hazardous journey from Manila to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities since the Philippines in July officially banned its job-hungry citizens from going there.
The risks involved in working in Iraq are very real. Mr. Tarongoy, a 31-year-old accountant, was kidnapped on Nov. 1 just a few weeks into a $900-a-month job. His captors are demanding a $10 million ransom and the release of prisoners in U.S. military jails.
But Filipinos' willingness to defy Manila's travel ban underscores in a poignant way just how dependent the country has become on overseas work, given the meager employment prospects at home.
For many, the search for work plays out every day in Manila's Luneta Park. Hundreds of merchant seamen and construction workers squat in the shade of banyan trees fanning themselves with their passports as music plays over loudspeakers in the background. Recruiters circulate in the crowd holding up signs advertising job openings.
At the moment, pickings are slim. Charlie Alvaron looks up from his chess game and says he has worked as an engineer in various countries and on a smattering of ships since 1988. The gaps between contracts are usually brief. This time, however, he has been stuck in Manila for two months waiting for a suitable job to come along. 'We should be allowed to go wherever the work is,' he says, 'even in Iraq.'
His opinion is widely shared among Filipinos who have little choice but to leave home to make a living. In August, police used water cannons to disperse hundreds of Filipinos who marched on the presidential palace to protest the Iraq travel ban.
On the ground in Iraq, there is plenty of work. Earlier this year, U.S. administrators allocated several thousand jobs there to the Philippines, the world's biggest exporter of manpower.
But no Filipinos will fill those vacancies if the Philippine government can prevent it. The Philippines ruled Iraq off-limits for its citizens after Manila withdrew its small peacekeeping contingent there to save the life of a Filipino truck driver captured by insurgents, who threatened to behead him.
Manila fears that having to deal with another Filipino hostage situation in Iraq could again strain relations with the U.S., which wants the Philippines to resist kidnappers' demands -- as Japan and South Korea have done. To try to prevent Filipinos from working there, the Philippines has begun stamping passports with the phrase 'Not Valid For Travel To Iraq' in both English and Arabic.
But the travel ban isn't working. Resourceful Filipinos are still finding their way to Iraq, often posing as tourists en route to countries such as Kuwait or Turkey.
'It's better to die in Iraq than have no way to feed your family here in the Philippines,' says Mr. Alvaron, the chess-playing engineer. His friend, Manuel Alo, agrees. 'We have a lot of experience, but we can't find a job at home.'
Their frustration is understandable. The unemployment rate in the Philippines was 11.7% in July, the latest available figure, with underemployment estimated at about 25%. Per capita annual income is a little more than $1,000 -- slightly less than that of China.
With its population growing at one of the fastest rates in Asia and its government struggling with a growing debt problem, the Philippines is likely to see more of its people leave no matter what the risks.
Filipinos who leave to work abroad -- about 10% of the 85 million population -- send home about $8 billion a year, a crucial infusion of consumer cash for the Philippines' economy.
About 4,000 Filipinos were working in Iraq before the travel ban was imposed, mostly as janitors or cooks at U.S. military camps.
Since the ban began, however, Philippine labor officials say about 2,000 Filipinos have managed to travel to Iraq, risking their lives for wages triple those paid elsewhere in the Middle East and 10 times what they could earn in the Philippines.
One woman interviewed by Filipino diplomats in Baghdad told them she was working at the U.S. Army's Camp Anaconda with 40 other Filipinos who sneaked into Iraq from Turkey.
'She knew of another group of 120 scheduled to go to Iraq through the same route in the coming week,' the Philippines' special envoy to the Middle East, Roy Cimatu, said in a statement issued early this month by the country's Department of Foreign Affairs.
At the end of October, meanwhile, immigration officials at Manila's airport intercepted 10 Filipinos bound for Iraq. They were heading to Bangkok to avoid suspicion, but one of the men accidentally showed his employment contract with Iraqi-American Development Co. All 10 had been illegally hired by recruitment agencies in Manila who would receive a large chunk of their salaries.
Complicating the Philippines' problems, these itinerant job-seekers might be particularly vulnerable to kidnappers. Critics of government policy, such as political analyst Alex Magno, say the Philippines' earlier capitulation to the insurgents made more abductions inevitable. The Philippines, which has its own militant rebellion in the Muslim-populated south of the archipelago, is seen as something of a soft touch.
In recent years, the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group that operates there has extorted millions of dollars in ransom payments from foreign governments for the safe return of tourists kidnapped from Philippine and Malaysian holiday resorts, according to police.
The latest victim in Iraq, Mr. Tarongoy, started his journey from his hometown, the southern Philippine city of Davao. He made his way to Iraq after the travel ban was imposed, traveling to Qatar as a tourist before heading to Jordan, and from there to Baghdad.
According to Manila authorities, he was illegally recruited in the Philippines by agents working for a Saudi Arabian company. Mr. Tarongoy's wife said he told her he was just going to Manila to find work.
Mr. Tarongoy's mother, Isabelitia, who lives in a shack in the middle of a cemetery in Davao, told local television reporters she last heard from her son on Oct. 31. She said he called to say he was fine, and not to worry about the sounds of explosions in the background.
'He said it was normal there already,' Mrs. Tarongoy said.
"
