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MANILA - UP to 10,000 Filipinos are ignoring a Philippine government ban on working in Iraq, a recruiting company consultant said on Thursday.
The Filipinos enter Iraq via Dubai and Kuwait, many to work at US military bases including camps Anaconda and Victory, said Mr Emmanuel Geslani of Anglo-European Services Inc, a leading employer of Filipinos in Iraq.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo banned Filipinos working in Iraq in July, 2004 after a Filipino truck driver was kidnapped there.
The driver was freed unharmed after Manila pulled out its token military contribution to the coalition forces and some 4,500 Filipinos working in Iraq at the time were allowed to work out their contracts.
'Many of the former Iraq workers were bitter against the Mrs Arroyo administration for imposing the ban,' said Mr Geslani, adding the decision to continue the ban was 'ill-conceived' as security in Iraq had improved.
Iraqi embassy charge d'affaires Falih Al-Assadi said Manila should scrap the ban as there is demand for workers in construction and development projects.
Officials have conceded the ban is easy to circumvent and local labour groups have also called for it to be lifted, saying it forces workers to go undocumented.
Several Filipinos have been killed or injured in Iraq, the latest in June when a man was killed and two women wounded in a mortar attack on the US compound in Baghdad. -- AFP
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