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239 distressed OFWs start arriving from Jeddah, Kuwait


As the first batch of distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) arrived in Manila Wednesday, concerned government agencies are ready to extend help to a total 239 OFWs arriving this week from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. "Our repatriation program for all OFWs is a continuing thing and this week, 239 of them coming from Jeddah and Kuwait will arrive. We are ready to receive them with a package of assistance to enable them to reintegrate themselves smoothly into the mainstream of their communities," Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz Baldoz said in an article on the Labor Department website. It said 82 OFWs – 25 from Kuwait and 57 from Jeddah – arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Wednesday. Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) officials and personnel were on hand to receive them, Baldoz said. Another group of seven from Kuwait is expected to arrive on a Kuwait Airways flight on Thursday. On Saturday, a batch of 150 from Jeddah is expected to be flown in by Gulf Air. Baldoz said she has directed OWWA chief Carmelita Dimzon to be on “full assistance mode" when all the 239 OFWs arrive. She vowed that every distressed OFW would be repatriated within 30 days after the host country issues an exit clearance or visa. For her part, Dimzon said the OWWA will provide the repatriates with free psycho-social counseling, shelter, food while at OWWA, and transportation money for their trip back to their home provinces. Once there, they will be given retraining on various skills. “Our reintegration approach is to see to it first that our distressed OFWs are returned smoothly to their families and to Philippine society, then we provide them the economic assistance to enable them to get back to their feet," Dimzon said. On the other hand, Dimzon said OWWA’s economic reintegration package has skills training and re-training and entrepreneurial assistance. According to her, the OWWA also provides referrals to its social partners for easy-to-pay loans for those who would like to venture into business. For those who wish to get a job, the DOLE will provide them job facilitation services. The distressed OFWs who will be repatriated from Jeddah are part of those who have been camping out under Kandara Bridge. "Their repatriation was worked out by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office headed by Labor Attache Vic Cabe who made strong representation with the Jawasat, or the Saudi General Directorate for Passports, to provide the OFWs exit clearances. The air tickets of the Kandara Bridge OFWs were purchased by the OWWA, which has advanced some P20 million for the continuing repatriation program," the DOLE said. On the other hand, the Kuwaiti government shouldered the expenses of the OFW repatriates from Kuwait. Most of the 239 OFWs are women who had been charged by their employers of absconding on their employment contracts. — LBG/KBK, GMANews.TV