Migrant urge better embassy services
Migrant urge better embassy services
Red Deer, AB – Migrante Alberta is pushing the Philippine embassy in Canada to provide better access to its services for Filipinos in the province.
Representatives from the Philippine consulate based in Vancouver are set to conduct an outreach mission for passport renewal on May 25 to 27, 2012 at Sheraton Hotel in Red Deer. This following an overflow of applicants in the first outreach mission it conducted in the city in March of this year.
Aubrey dela Cruz, one of the overflow applicants and a member of Migrante Alberta expressed frustration over the poor access to services being provided by the Philippine embassy. “Currently, the consular offices based in Edmonton and Calgary do not provide basic services like passport renewals for Filipinos”.
She said that Filipinos in Alberta requiring passport renewal have to travel to Vancouver to complete one if they don’t make it in the list of applicants being served during the office’s outreach missions. “It is costly especially for Filipino workers. They take times off without pay or sacrifice their weekends or days off in order to renew their passports.”
A 2010 data by Citizenship and Immigration Canada reported that there are 24, 024 Temporary Foreign Workers in Alberta. Philippines ranked fifth among source countries for TFWs in Canada.
Migrante Canada has launched a petition calling for the Philippine embassy in Ottawa to provide accessible and affordable services for Filipinos across Canada. In its petition, the group is pushing for expanded services in the cities where a large number of Filipinos are found such as Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary.
The group also criticized the office for collecting “expensive fees.” It said that while it only costs $23.00 to renew passports in the Philippines, the embassy charges $69.00 for the same service in Canada.
Also, the group encourages Filipinos in Canada to register for overseas absentee voting for the Philippine elections in 2013. Registration for absentee voting is part of the services provided by the embassy during its outreach missions.
The Philippine office is set to conduct an outreach mission in Fort McMurray in July and another one to be announced in Calgary. A list of outreach missions across Canada can be found on its website.
(PRESS RELEASE)
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