The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Thursday, April 7, that the deployment ban of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has remained in effect.

DOLE issued the statement after the circulation of a fake advisory purportedly issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration that lifted the suspension of deployment of migrant workers to Saudi Arabia.
“It is fake! There is no iota of truth to the content of that advisory. The suspension of deployment remains,” DOLE Information and Publication Service (IPS) Director Rolly Francia said, adding that he has not signed nor issued the said document.
Francia said that the labor department has coordinated with law enforcement agencies to track down the authors of the fake document dated April 4 — Advisory No. 69, series of 2022 — which confused migrant workers seeking deployment to Saudi.
“The unscrupulous authors of the sham manufactured the document using an old advisory and substituted its contents for it to appear as a legitimate issuance. Thus, it also suggests intention to compromise the credibility of POEA and injure the current leadership of the agency,” he explained.
“We intend to apply the full force of the law to whoever is behind this very criminal act which could undermine the welfare of our migrant workers,” Francia added.