MANILA: More than a thousand Philippine health workers will finally be allowed to take jobs abroad following President Rodrigo Duterte decision to ease their travel ban, but they are not celebrating yet and want a total lifting of restrictions.
Thousands of health workers, who call themselves “priso-nurses”, had appealed to the government to let them take jobs abroad, Reuters reported last week. The nurses say they feel underpaid, under-appreciated and unprotected in the Philippines.
The government in April barred nurses, doctors and other medical workers from leaving, saying they were needed to fight the coronavirus crisis at home. The Philippines has Southeast Asia’s highest infection numbers, with 290,190 cases, of which 4,999 died.
Those Duterte exempted from the ban will now include any workers with overseas…