600 OFWs returning from Middle East

MANILA, Philippines - At least 600 distressed overseas Filipino workers from Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East are returning home tomorrow, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration reported.

OWWA chief Carmelita Dimzon said President Arroyo will be welcoming the OFWs who are arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) from five Middle East countries between 3:30 to 4 p.m.

Dimzon said 279 OFWs will arrive from Jeddah, 150 from Riyadh, 26 from Alkhobar , 49 from Jordan, 20 from Bahrain, 50 from Dubai, 62 from Abu Dhabi and seven from Syria.

Aside from OWWA, Dimzon said, the private sector have also helped in funding the repatriation cost of the mass repatriation of the 600 distressed Filipino workers.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said private corporations themselves approached the government to express their desire to share the plane fares as a return favor to the OFW communities. “The sponsors acknowledge that OFW remittances have been helping the Philippine economy weather the impact of the global economic recession,” Roque said.

Dimzon said that the repatriation of OFWs is a non-profit activity for the private sponsors. She noted that the mass repatriation of Filipino workers from the Middle East is the second partnership and is bigger than the 150 OFWs brought home under a similar partnership on June 12, 2009.

“Host governments in the Middle East accommodated the requests of the Philippine government for a mass repatriation as a gesture of goodwill to President Arroyo who had visited their countries,” Dimzon said.

Dimzon said that the host governments assisted in fast-tracking the negotiations of the Philippine embassies, OWWA welfare officers with employers to issue exit clearances to the OFWs, she said.