Repatriated OFWs from KSA, Bahrain arrive home

Another batch of distressed overseas Filipino workers arrived home Wednesday night after being repatriated from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Radio dzBB reported early Thursday the flight carrying the batch of 36 OFWs arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. Officials of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration welcomed and brought the OFWs to the OWWA office. According to the dzBB report, the latest batch of 36 OFWs returned to the country after allegedly being maltreated and denied their wages. Meanwhile, another batch of 100 OFWs from Saudi Arabia is due to arrive Friday. Likewise, at least 32 Filipinos caught overstaying in Bahrain were repatriated after Philippine officials there helped them avail of an "easy exit" scheme, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday. The Philippine Embassy in Bahrain said it helped the 32 avail of the Easy Exit Scheme of the Bahrain Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA). "Benefiting most from this project include Martin V. Arrag, Jr., who overstayed for 20 years and would have paid Bahraini dinar (BD) 500 or P62,000 but paid only BD15; Nancy Joy Catamora, who overstayed for 18 years and would have paid BD450 or P55,000 but paid only BD15; and Bienvenido Mortilla, who overstayed for 15 years as tourist and would have paid BD5,700 or P706,800 but paid only BD40," the DFA said. The DFA added the 32 Filipinos from Bahrain overstayed in the country either by choice or by force of circumstances. It said the Philippine Embassy provided assistance to the overstaying workers during the enrollment and verification process, endorsing their exit cards, extending the validity of their passports, and issuing travel documents to them. The "Easy Exit for Illegal Workers" program was launched by LMRA and the General Directorate for Nationality, Passport and Residence (GNDPR) in February 2010. It aimed to weed out foreign illegal workers in Bahrain. "The program is not an amnesty to rectify the residence permit status of overstaying expatriates, but a pardon from the penalties accumulated for overstaying," the DFA said. Its target beneficiaries are thousands of workers, including housemaids and other domestic workers, as well as visitors who have overstayed their visas. Some of the OFWs went to Bahrain on tourist or visit visas with the intention of seeking a job, but ended up working illegally and overstayed there. The others, with valid working visas, had absconded from their employers and sought other jobs without accomplishing visa transfer processes with their new employers. Others overstayed because of the protracted hearings on labor/criminal cases filed by them or against them by employers, with neither party bothering to renew the workers' visas. — LBG, GMANews.TV