The Department of Labor and Employment announced that it is planning to boost the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in several European countries through bilateral labor agreements.

In a media briefing on Wednesday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said that talks are underway with Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Poland.

Romania eyes to employ 500 to 1000 Filipino nurses to augment its healthcare system.

Poland is also currently pushing for a bilateral labor agreement to also hire Filipino health-care workers (HCW).

The government has lifted its temporary deployment ban for healthcare workers which was imposed earlier this year during the coronavirus pandemic.

“About 90 to 95 percent of our deployment [for HCWs] are nurses. Only 5 percent are from other categories,” Bello said during the briefing.

Other countries like Canada, Israel and China are also standby once the government continues its deployment.

Canada and Israel are both looking to hire caregivers while China is more keen on hiring teachers.

“We just want to ensure our OFWs will be deployed in areas where there is no danger of contamination from Covid-19. But the opportunities for employment are there,” Bello said.

The said vacancies await the thousands of OFWs, who were displaced by Covid-19.

The government has so far repatriated some 353,000 OFWS affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

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