Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 29) — The Brunei government has requested for an exemption from the country’s deployment cap on healthcare workers, the Department of Labor and Employment said Sunday.
Labor Attache Melissa Mendizabal of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office said Brunei had sent a request for exemption last year, but it did not materialize. The southeast Asian neighbor sent another request last July, she added.
Mendizabal said Brunei is looking for around 200 nurses and 30 medical doctors.
“There are two hospitals here, one government hospital and one private hospital. The salary is comparable to the salary of nurses in Singapore. Nurses receive high take-home pay because of the free accommodation and transportation,” she said in a statement.
“If they render overtime work, they earn as much as 2,000 Brunei dollars per month,” she added.
At present, there are only 900 slots left out of the 6,500-deployment ceiling for healthcare workers.
Mendizabal said there are around 20,000 overseas Filipino workers in Brunei.
“Our kababayans will always be the first choice among migrant workers to work there […] At the moment, we are in semi-lockdown, but once we go back to normal, almost all sectors want to hire our OFWs,” she said.
However, Mendizabal said there is no chance for permanent residency in Brunei. OFWs are work pass holders only and are being issued visas every two years, she added.
