OFW News: Iraq needs 10,000 foreign workers

Iraq needs at least 10,000 foreign workers for reconstruction and infrastructure projects worth $19 million next year, the Iraqi embassy said.

In an interview, Iraqi embassy charge d’affaires Adel Mawlood Hamoudi Al-Hakim said he hopes the Philippine government will lift the ban on Filipino workers in his country.

Speaking through an interpreter, Al-Hakim said Iraq is hopeful that talks between the Iraqi immigration minister and Labor Secretary Marianito Roque will lead to the lifting of the ban.

“For the new phase that we are planning to do in 2009, we have a lot of plans for the infrastructure so we will be needing thousands of foreign workers from outside Iraq, that’s why we are so in need of Filipino help and experience,” he said.

“That’s why we are working to remove this (deployment ban). But we are waiting for the response of the government.”

About 15,000 Filipinos are working for American companies in Iraq, he added.

Al-Hakim said foreign workers are needed for reconstruction and infrastructure projects in the north of Iraq where American and other foreign companies are based.

Source: http://philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=415415