PHILIPPINES HALTS DEPLOYMENT OF WORKERS TO LIBYA

Officials say the Philippine government, one of the world’s biggest labour exporters, has indefinitely deferred the deployment of workers to restive Libya, Bahrain and Yemen. Philippine Overseas Employment Administration chief Carlos Cao on February 22 said that officials also decided in an emergency meeting to prepare for a possible evacuation of Filipino workers, especially in violence-prone regions of Libya like Benghazi city, if the unrest there worsens. Foreign affairs department spokesman Ed Malaya says that Philippine diplomats have taken steps to locate and contact about 26,000 Filipino workers in Libya for possible evacuation. Nearly 10 percent of the Philippines’ 90 million people work abroad.