CBCP: 160 OFWs in Kuwait longing to go home for Christmas

MANILA, Philippines - As the world marked International Migrants Day on Thursday, some 160 Filipino workers stranded at a Philippine government facility in Kuwait said they are longing to go home.

A report posted on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website (www.cbcpnews.com) said the Filipinos include 21 male and 139 female workers.

"It is not a joke to keep all of them under one roof," the report quoted Labor Attache Josephus Jimenez, head of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Kuwait, as saying.

Jimenez said the Filipinos staying at POLO include 19 security guards who claimed they were illegally dismissed.

He said three conciliation conferences have been conducted among the security guards, the recruitment agency and the principal employers but they failed to arrive at any settlement.

While there, the security guards provide "security services" to the POLO office but have meager meal allowance of one dinar (P176).

On the other hand, the female workers said they left their jobs due to abusive employers and lack of appropriate communication skills and ignorance of high-tech household gadgets.

Jimenez said Church-based Filipino groups help him feed the stranded workers, while embassy personnel provided them winter clothes and toiletries. – GMANews.TV

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