Remaining 228 Filipino oil field workers in Kazakhstan to arrive this week

Some 228 Filipino workers will be repatriated from Kazakhstan this week following riots at an oil field run jointly by US oil firm Chevron and the Kazak government, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

The Philippine embassy in Pakistan, which has jurisdiction over Kazakhstan, said in a report to the DFA that the 228 Filipino oil workers were repatriated from Tengiz and will arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on separate flights tomorrow and Saturday.

Consul General Maria Agnes Cervantes of the Philippine embassy in Pakistan said 154 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) arrived in Atyrau, Kazakhstan and will proceed to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, today for their connecting flight to the Philippines.

They will arrive in Manila on board a KLM flight tomorrow at 9:50 a.m.

The second and last batch of 74 Filipinos who asked to be repatriated will depart from Tengiz for Atyrau tomorrow and then take a flight from there to Almaty. From Almaty, the group will proceed to Amsterdam for their flight to Manila on Friday. This group will arrive in Manila via a KLM Airlines flight on Saturday at 9:50 a.m.

Cervantes and labor attaché Resty de la Fuente will remain in Atyrau until the last batch of Filipinos who wish to return home have left.

Ambassador Jaime Yamboa, Cervantes and De la Fuente were earlier dispatched to Tengiz to look after the welfare and security of Filipino workers at an oil facility run by Bechtel Corp. after tensions arose between local Kazakh workers and their Turkish colleagues last month.

At least 220 Filipino oil workers returned to work last Nov. 6 following the implementation of a new site security plan.

The consular team headed by Yambao said the OFWs employed by Bechtel in Tengiz, Kazakhstan were assured about their security under the new site security plan drawn up by Bechtel officials.

The three-person consular team from the DFA and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) joined the Filipino oil workers when they returned to the Chevroil Project worksite and observed the new security measures in place.

De la Fuente reported that the situation when the Filipinos returned to work in the oil field remained peaceful, and there was no tension.

The DFA assured that all the Filipino oil workers in Tengiz are safe and no one was involved in the reported fight between the Kazakh and Turkish workers.

They have been separated from the other foreign workers and housed in a building only for Filipinos.

The embassy requested Bechtel International to segregate the Filipino workers during meal times because the tension is high but evacuation from Kazakhstan is not necessary because the problem is localized.

The Tengiz field is among the three biggest energy projects being developed with foreign partners in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan.

The oldest of the three, it supplies oil to the West via a pipeline through Russia, and has been involved in a major expansion process in recent years.

An estimated eight million Filipinos or nearly 10 percent of the population are employed abroad, sending home millions of dollars annually and helping to keep the Philippine economy afloat. — With AFP