There’s bad news for overstaying Filipino workers in Oman and good news for OFWs whose professions were previously restricted to locals.
The Sultanate of Oman, a country in the Arabian peninsula bordered by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, has ordered illegal or overstaying foreign workers until March 31, the Department of Labor and Employment said recently. The order came from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Philippine embassy and embassies of countries sending workers into the country.
Oman’s capital city, Muscat.
Repatriation of illegal workers will be facilitated by the embassy’s Labor Attache Romeo Young, as the Omani ministry asked those who wished to avail of the amnesty to submit the required documents. The Philippine Overseas Labor Office and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Oman set up a one-stop-shop center for the registration and processing of OFWs who would avail of the amnesty.
At the same time, the sultanate has just lifted the temporary ban on issuing visas to foreign workers in 10 categories. The country now resumes issuing visa for shoe repairers, real estate valuators, bicycle mechanics, electricians, upholstery workers, car mechanics, plumbers and painters, screen printing technicians, health club trainers, and restaurants and coffee shop workers.
However, the ban on foreign workers for eight other professions, including laundry and barbershop workers, will continue until the end of 2010.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-malory-man/
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