Philippines offers nurses in exchange for vaccines from Britain, Germany

By Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Philippines will let
thousands of its healthcare workers, mostly nurses, take up jobs
in Britain and Germany if the two countries agree to donate
much-needed coronavirus vaccines, a senior official said on
Tuesday.
The Philippines, which has among Asia's highest number of
coronavirus cases, has relaxed a ban on deploying its healthcare
workers overseas, but still limits the number of medical
professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year.
Alice Visperas, director of the labour ministry's
international affairs bureau, said the Philippines was open to
lifting the cap in exchange for vaccines from Britain and
Germany, which it would use to inoculate outbound workers and
hundreds of thousands of Filipino repatriates.
Nurses are among the millions of Filipinos who work
overseas, providing in excess of $30 billion a year in
remittances vital to the country's economy.
"We are considering the request to lift the deployment cap,
subject to agreement," Visperas told Reuters.
Britain is grappling with the world's sixth-highest
coronavirus death toll and one of the worst economic hits from
the pandemic, while Germany has the 10th most infections
globally.
While the two countries have inoculated a combined 23
million people, the Philippines has yet to start its campaign to
immunise 70 million adults, or two-thirds of its 108 million
people. It expects to receive its first batch of vaccines this
week, donated by China.
The Philippines wants to secure 148 million doses of
vaccines altogether.
The British embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to
a request for comment while calls to Germany's mission went
unanswered.
In 2019, almost 17,000 Filipino nurses signed overseas work
contracts, government data showed. While Filipino nurses have fought to lift the deployment ban
to escape poor working conditions and low pay at home, the
workers-for-vaccine plan has not gone down well with some
medical workers.
"We are disgusted on how nurses and healthcare workers are
being treated by the government as commodities or export
products," Jocelyn Andamo, secretary general of the Filipino
Nurses United, told Reuters.