The biggest batch of repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) – numbering 574 – landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) from the Middle East late Friday, ending their personal misadventures in a foreign land, labor department authorities said on Saturday. The OFWs were welcomed by no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and top officials of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) led by Labor Secretary Marianito Roque. The OFWs came from Jeddah, Riyadh, Al-Khobar, Jordan, Bahrain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Syria onboard four flights from three different airlines, Roque said. Many of the OFWs were those who ran away from their abusive employers. Some of them talked to reporters and recalled their harrowing experiences. Maria Elena Corbe from Cavite said she ran away from her employer in Syria after she was duped into believing that she would only work as a maid for a small family. “But I was surprised to see that the family I would work for has 25 members. They made me work non-stop until my knees buckled down due to tiredness,” she said in Tagalog. Wahida Guimba from Pikit, North Cotabato said she is just 16 years old but was forced to work abroad as a maid due to her family's extreme poverty. She said an illegal recruiter brought her to a family in Syria where she was subjected to abuses by her employer and paid a monthly salary of less than 5,000 pesos. She said she once tried to escape the house of her employer but was caught and jailed. “I will never go back there,” she swore. Roque said the repatriation of the distressed OFWs was made possible through the government and private sector's partnership efforts. He said last Friday's arrivals were so far the biggest repatriation of distressed OFWs who will be provided temporary shelter before their return to the provinces. “The OWWA will shoulder the OFWs' temporary lodging and will also share the cost of domestic transportation of the OFWs,'' Roque said. Moreover, he said the returning OFWs will receive assistance from the government, including livelihood projects, counseling, skills training and re-tooling, and placement in local jobs. Roque said many of the repatriated workers had complaints of maltreatment from their employers and incorrect salaries while nine OFWs had to be repatriated due to varying medical reasons. Roque hailed the host governments in the Middle East for accommodating the Philippine government's request for a mass repatriation of the distressed OFWs, adding it was their gesture of goodwill to President Arroyo for visiting their countries in the recent past. However, the international Filipino migrant group Migrante blasted Arroyo's “grand gimmick” of welcoming back distressed OFWs back to the Philippines. “Gloria has grown fond of taking advantage of the sorry state of Pinoy migrants for her publicity stunts. By far, today's gimmick with distressed workers is the biggest since 2006. But to no avail, this cheap trick will not change her unprecedented record of criminal neglect to OFWs or even save her from her plunging survey ratings,” said Garry Martinez, Migrante International chairperson. Martinez said the OFWs and their families are not easily fooled into believing that the President is concerned with the plight of migrant workers. – SG “The sheer volume of distressed workers is a result of the government's willful failure to secure the rights and ensure the welfare of Filipinos working abroad particularly in the Middle-East. Her intensified labor export policy boasts of more deployment while there is no corresponding program for OFW protection,” he said.
