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65 OFWs from Mideast return home without jobs, bring tales of despair


MANILA, Philippines - A total of sixty-five Filipinos from the Middle East have returned home without jobs but with tons of sad stories of their struggles with low salaries and abusive employers. Of the 65 returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), 25 were retrenched from the Al Abbar Aluminum Group of Companies in Dubai.They arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila on Monday. The OFWs complained of reduced working hours and delayed salaries. Stalin Embasan, one of the laid-off workers, said he paid some P20,000 as placement fee for a two- to three -year contract with the firm. But he received a letter telling him of his retrenchment after only six months of working for the company. A fellow OFW, Gerry Lopensa said they may file a complaint against Al Abbar Aluminum because the money they earned did not even compensate for the money they shelled out to work overseas. Forty Filipino domestic helpers from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia also arrived on Monday after escaping from their employers. Some of the OFWs said their employers were trying to sell them to other Arabs. Saguira Maulana, 25, from Cotabato city escaped her abusive employer by jumping off the third-story floor of the house she was staying in. She tearfully arrived at the airport in a wheelchair. The runaway OFWs stayed for months at the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration office in Saudi Arabia pending the processing of their travel papers. Filipino workers cannot return home legally from the Middle East unless their employers secure exit visas. For them. - Mark Joseph Ubalde and Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV
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