The Philippines will temporarily suspend its deployment of workers to Israel, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said, amidst the conflict between Palestinians and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Bello said that his department will continue processing the documents of at least 400 Filipino caregivers, but they won’t be allowed to leave the Philippines for now.
“This is correct; for now they won’t be allowed [to depart]. I will consult first with [Foreign Affairs] Secretary [Teodoro] Locsin about the alert level there because as you can see there are explosions everywhere. It’s hard to deploy workers and I’m responsible for them,” Bello said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
Bello said that despite the conflict, which has left hundreds of Palestinians dead including women and children, most of the Filipino workers living in Israel prefer to stay in the country.
“No one wants to go home. They just continue to work,” the labor official said.
Israel has been conducting countless air raids over the Gaza strip, which has destroyed more than 450 buildings and displaced more than 50,000 Palestinians. Meanwhile, a dozen people were killed in Israel due to rockets launched by the Palestinians, and about 300 residents were wounded.
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