Over 10,000 Filipinos will be employed in Iraq by the mid-2014

By the middle part of 2014, at least 10,000 Filipinos are expected to be deployed to Iraq. It is noteworthy that the ban on the Filipino workers sending overseas has been lifted of late. Now, the country workers or labors can be deployed to any place of this earth for carrying out major projects.

The labor recruitment consultant Emmanuel Geslani stated, “The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) together with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is now on the final stage to finish important details for a bilateral labor agreement expected to be signed by both governments by this year.”
The jobs to be filled by these workers are in the construction, medical, port, and telecommunications sectors, with construction and medicine having the biggest need for new personnel.
Geslani also remarked, “In addition to building millions of new homes and repairing existing buildings, huge infrastructure renewal is needed, it also needs workers in the treatment and distribution of water, new sewer systems, roads, airports, rail systems and ports. In 2012, Iraq's construction industry expanded by 4.4 percent, worth US$ 5.6 billion, and is forecast to grow by an annual 6.18 percent until 2016.”

Medical professionals are needed as it has been noted in case of many countries that their own medical professionals have moved to some other parts of the world, in search for better job opportunities. Such vacant positions will be filled up. Workers are allowed to work anywhere in the region, except in "no go zones", which include the provinces of Anbar, Ninewah/Nineveh, Kirkuk/Tamim, and Salahuddin/Salahaddin.

Despite this, the POEA board still excludes Filipino household service workers from finding work in Iraq. “Household service workers are still not allowed because they are vulnerable and we are also trying to limit their hiring,” said Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
Previously, the POEA board had imposed a ban on Iraq – a total deployment ban - on the recommendation of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) amid violence in the country.
But last February, the Philippine embassy in Baghdad certified Iraq as compliant with the provisions of the Amended Migrants Workers Act.
The POEA warned jobseekers of illegal recruiters and advised prospective workers to deal only with government-accredited recruitment agencies.