OWWA releases assistance package to kin of OFW scalded in Saudi Arabia

Philippine labor officials this week extended an assistance package to the family of an abused overseas Filipino worker who was scalded with boiling water in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) head Carmelita Dimzon released an initial financial assistance of P15,000 to the relatives of Fahima Alagasi, 23, MindaNews reported Wednesday.

“We will do everything we can to assist (Alagasi) and her family while they go through this ordeal,” the report quoted Dimzon as saying in a press conference in Koronadal City.

Dimzon also said the OWWA will provide scholarships to Alagasi’s two children, aside from livelihood assistance to her family.

Alagasi, who hails from Pikit town in Cotabato, was reportedly abused by her employer in Riyadh, and suffered burns when she was scalded with boiling water.

Returning home soon?

Dimzon said her office has coordinated with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other concerned agencies to let Alagasi return home as early as within this week.

MindaNews quoted Susan Ople of the Ople Center as saying Alagasi is staying at a safe house of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking,

Also, Dimzon said the agency has suspended the license of the recruitment agency that deployed Alagasi. It has also blacklisted her employer. — Joel Locsin /LBG, GMA News

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