Canada has opened a new immigration operation centre in the Philippines to get ahead in the global race for health care labour even as the Southeast Asian country struggles with an exodus of its workers.

Starting June 1, the Bureau of Immigration will no longer allow the entry of foreign nationals who present entry exemption documents issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs before February 8 this year.

The group at the Bureau of Immigration allegedly behind the controversial “pastillas” scam was tagged in another scheme, this time, involving the outbound trafficking of Filipino women to Syria.

With 800,000 cases pending before immigration courts nationwide, the partial shutdown only worsens the backlog. At the moment, the immigration courts under the Department of Justice’s Executive Office on Immigration Review (EOIR) are not hearing cases of non-detained individuals and their hearing if scheduled during the shutdown will be reset for a later date. Individuals who are in detention will proceed with their scheduled hearings.

Some time ago we met two fascinating women; Clarissa and Joramae, both of them are “Overseas Filipino Workers” Clarissa was an Illegal immigrant in the Netherlands and Joramae is until today working as a domestic helper in Kuwait. Both women were regarded as one of the new heroes of modern days by the Philippine government and their family.