At least 17 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were repatriated from Saudi Arabia, with the help of Philippine labor officials, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Thursday. The labor department cited a report from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) that the workers were flown to Manila via Etihad Airways EY-424. “The repatriated workers were considered by the host country either as overstaying or illegal aliens, cases that are common among OFWs repatriated from the Middle East,” the DOLE said on its website. According to a report of OWWA head Carmelita Dimzon, a team helped the workers, all males, in clearing Customs and immigration procedures. DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the OWWA shouldered the repatriation cost of the 17 OFWs, and offered them accommodation at the OWWA halfway house while waiting to be brought to their respective home provinces. Baldoz said that in some cases, employers report the OFWs to immigration police as runaways for various reasons, such as breach of their employment contracts. In such cases, the workers are automatically treated as overstaying aliens even if some of them were legally deployed. However, she said OFWs in other cases enter their destination countries using tourist visas and they eventually exceed their allowable period of stay. Baldoz reminded OFWs anew to undergo the legal process when working abroad.
