ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Friday announced that it is undertaking the necessary preparation to send back a group of Filipino deportees to their respective places of origin.
Ivan Eric Salvador, DSWD regional information officer, said a group of 202 deportees arrived in this city on Thursday aboard a commercial ferry, M/V Antonia 1, from Malaysia.
Of the total, he said that 185 are male adults, 16 female adults, and one male child.
Salvador said most of them are from the Zamboanga Peninsula, while the rest are from Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi Tawi provinces, Visayas and Luzon areas.
He said the DSWD provided the deportees transportation and other personal needs while the Department of Health (DOH) gave them free medical check-up.
Salvador said the 202 deportees are presently housed at the Processing Center for Displaced Persons (PCDP) of the DSWD in Barangay Talon-Talon, this city. They will stay at the PCDP until such time they will be sent back to their respective places of origin.
The DSWD official appealed to the deportees to secure the needed documents and go through the required process if they wish to work in Malaysia. (R. G. Antonet Go/PNA)