MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Migrant Workers brought home 344 distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) previously based in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
The repatriation was arranged by DMW-attached agency, Overseas Workers Welfare Association (OWWA). The repatriated OFWs include workers with medical conditions, while one will reportedly “attend to a tragedy within the family.”
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“The DMW, through OWWA, will be extending the needed assistance to all our repatriated kababayan, including medical help and transportation,” Migrant Workers Secretary Susan "Toots" Ople said in a statement on Sunday.
Some of the repatriated workers are getting assistance to access medical care as some of them are stroke victims, cancer patients, and there are also pregnant women brought back home. There are also workers who have been suffering with mental illness.
The department said the OFWs for quarantine are being accommodated at a hotel in Quezon City as some of them have yet to complete their vaccine doses. They will also be tested for COVID-19.
Ople said she already instructed the OWWA to tap local government units and the Department of Health to assist repatriated OFWs who want access to the government’s vaccination program.