Japan and Saudi Arabia top destination of Filipino women in 2005

According to official records of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), there were 280,661 Filipino workers sent abroad, 72% were women. Filipino women were deployed in 90 countries in 6 continents (except Antarctica), with Japan hosting 18.5% and Saudi Arabia, 18%.

In Africa, they were deployed in 11 countries: Algeria (1), Angola (3), Republic of Djibouti (1), Equatorial Guinea (15), Ethiopia (18), Gabon (2), Madagascar (2), Namibia (1), Nigeria (3), Sudan (11) and Swaziland (2).

In the Americas, they were deployed in 2 countries of North America and 13 countries in South America. In North America, they were deployed in Canada (764) and the United States of America (812+2 in Guam). In South America, they can be found in 13 countries: Anguilla (2), Bahamas (8), Barbados (12), Bermuda (12), Cayman Island (39), Cook Island (2), Costa Rica (2), Cuba (10), Diego Garcia (22), Haiti (2), Jamaica (4), Trinidad and Tobago (115), Turks and Caicos Island (50).

In Asia, they were deployed in 18 countries: Bangladesh (5), Brunei (689), Cambodia (8), China (197), Hong Kong (17,303), India (9), Indonesia (6), Japan (37,236), South Korea (1,461), Macau (6), Malaysia (1,054), Maldives (13), Pakistan (13), Singapore (2,760), Sri Lanka (7), Taiwan (23,698), Thailand (3) and Vietnam (1).

In the Middle East, they can be found in 14 countries: Bahrain (3,768), Egypt (111), Israel (2,250), Jordan (2,854), Kuwait (21,174), Lebanon (11,716), Libya (43), Oman (1,654), Qatar (7,243), Saudi Arabia (37,080), Syria (7), United Arab Emirates (24,064), North Yemen (24) and Republic of Yemen (8).

In Oceania, 3 countries: Australia (31), New Zealand (4), Papua New Guinea (18).

In Europe, 22 countries: Austria (3), Azerbaijan (5), Belgium (3), Cyprus (980), Finland (1), France (2), Republic of Germany (3), Greece (4), Hungary (1), Iceland (1), Ireland (257), Isle of Man (2), Italy (61), Republic of Montenegro (8), Moscow (1), Netherlands (2), Norway (1), Portugal (2), Russia (3), Spain (87), Switzerland (4) and the United Kingdom (1,400).

In the Trust Territories, they can be found in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island (68), Fiji (1), Marshall Island (1), Micronesia (3), Palau (64), Pohnpei (6) and Saipan (231).

Most of the women deployed were domestic workers (in Saudi Arabia) and entertainers (in Japan). The national policy on the export of labor is for it to serve only as a stop-gap measure for the lack of local employment in the Philippines, but the operational policy seems to be the opposite. Soon, we are going to clean up and entertain Antarctica.