7 Pinoys repatriated from Lebanon


MANILA, Philippines – Seven distressed overseas Filipino workers deployed to Lebanon despite an existing ban have been repatriated Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Wednesday.
Of the total, four were wards at the Philippine Embassy’s Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Resource Center (MWOFRC); two were detainees at the General Security Center (Lebanese Immigration); and the remaining one from Caritas Lebanon Center (CLMC).
The repatriates, many of them victims of maltreatment and contract violation, arrived August 14 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The funding for the airfare of six of the repatriates was sourced from the DFA's Assistance To Nationals funds. One of the returning OFWs paid for her own airfare.
Prior to their departure from Lebanon, the group was briefed by the embassy and urged to observe the deployment ban and assist the government in its information campaign to prevent other Pinoys from being victimized by illegal recruiters.
The embassy said both countries are in the process of ratifying the Philippines-Lebanon Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Labor Cooperation and its accompanying Protocol on Household Service Workers, which was signed by both countries in Beirut last February 1

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