The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), on Wednesday, 24 April 2024, prohibited the deployment of Filipino seafarers on passenger and cruise ships that are set to sail through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

This comes after the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden were added to the list of "high-risk areas" (HRAs) and "war-like zones" (WLZs) by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and the International Bargaining Forum (IBF).

The DMW has listed the following guidelines to ensure the safety of seafarers:

1. All Licensed Manning Agencies (LMAs) shall execute an affirmation letter that the ship to be boarded by their respective seafarers will not pass through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea and indicate the itinerary of the vessel every time it documents the employment the employment contract of the crew or prior to their deployment.

2. The seafarers to be assigned to passenger/cruise ships are likewise required to affix their signatures to indicate their concurrence to the said affirmation letter, confirming knowledge that the vessel they will board will not traverse the aforementioned WOAs.

3. The affirmation letter duly executed by the LMAs and with the consent of the seafarers shall be uploaded in the DMW Online Processing System for Sea-based (DOPS-Sea) together with the processed one-page covering Standard Employment Contract (SEC).

4. In case of manual processing, the affirmation letter shall form part of the required documents being submitted to the Sea-based Accreditation Bureau (SBAB).