Records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that the Philippines had its lowest deployment of migrant workers in the last three decades.

POEA said that from January to October, 693,237 overseas Filipino workers had been deployed which is a decline of 60.8% from last year.

The figures is the same during the 1996 Asian Financial crisis.

“The decreased deployments do not surprise authorities. Hurt also by this development is the recruitment industry, with reports that some of them have closed operations,” Jeremaiah Opiniano, executive director of the Institute for Migration and Development Issues told Philstar.

The low deployment also contributed to lower remittances this year.

Cash remittances from migrant workers declined 1.4% from January to September.

“They had to send more now because the Philippine peso to the dollar appreciated from 50 to 48 during this pandemic! That alone, for me, indicates some measure of financial pressure and stress,” Opiniano added.

The study also showed that deployment is not picking up, even though governments have started easing travel restriction.

The coronavirus pandemic also severely hit employment abroad hence leading to fewer job opportunities abroad.

So far the Department of Foreign Affairs has achieved a milestone in its repatriation effort by bringing home a total of 300,838 overseas Filipinos from all over the world.