MANILA — Sixty more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) arrived home from Kuwait on Thursday.
They arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on board Gulf Air Flight GF 154.
More than 4,000 OFWs have already been repatriated since the implementation of the deployment ban to Kuwait last February.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte has ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to work on the repatriation, due to reports of maltreatment and abuse that OFWs in Kuwait were experiencing.
Joanna Demafelis, a domestic helper in Kuwait, was killed and was found in a freezer. Just recently, her employers, the primary suspects, were sentenced to death by Kuwaiti authorities.
One of the repatriated OFWs on Thursday, Monique Salcedo, told airport reporters she just escaped from her Kuwaiti employer.
“I was overworked. I had very little time to sleep. I was not allowed to rest even when I was sick,” she lamented.
Salcedo added that she was underpaid.
Because of these, and because she could only eat past meal time, Salcedo said she was usually sick and could not afford to work.
“So I decided to escape and I went to the (Philippine) embassy,” she said.
The DFA targets to repatriate 10,000 OFWs in Kuwait until April 22, the deadline for the extension of the amnesty.
Every repatriated OFW is entitled to receive cash assistance from the Philippine government.
They are also provided with a temporary shelter upon their arrival in the country. The government also shoulders their transportation expenses to get back to their respective provinces. (Ma. Cristina Arayata/PNA)
