
By Arabella Asis
Two groups of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) evacuated from Sudan will arrive in Manila through Saudi Airlines commercial flights on Thursday, May 4, according to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).
The flights, carrying 80 and 72 OFWs respectively, will be traveling to Manila via Jeddah and Riyadh.
These groups were among the 340 OFWs assisted by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Philippine Embassy in Cairo to move to the Argeen Land Port Authority in Aswan, Egypt.
“Our DMW and OWWA [Overseas Workers Welfare Administration] teams continue to look after our distressed OFWs as part of our commitment to bring them home in close coordination, of course, with the DFA,” DMW Secretary Susan Ople said.
The DMW said it is negotiating with the Philippine Airlines to bring home the remaining 188 OFWs, as well as the 104 OFWs that are expected to arrive next week after clearing the Egyptian border.
“For this week, we will have 152 arriving on May 4 from Egypt and another bigger batch of OFWs from Sudan coming home hopefully via a chartered PAL flight,” Ople said. –ag