Baldoz wants airport assistance for repatriated OFWs simplified

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz this week ordered agencies assisting repatriated distressed overseas Filipino workers to further simplify their procedures at the airport.

Baldoz issued the directive after being shown the step-by-step process of assistance to distressed OFWs who arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

“We need to simplify more some of the processes to shorten the time of OFWs' stay at the airport for them to go home to their families. They only want to be with their loved ones as fast as possible," Baldoz said in a statement Thursday.

She directed her instructions to:

- Undersecretary Reydeluz Conferido
- Philippine Overseas Employment Administration chief Hans Leo Cacdac
- Overseas Workers Welfare Administration chief Rebecca Calzado
- National Reintegration Center for OFWs Director Violeta Munoz

Step by step

OWWA Repatriation Assistance Division (RAD) head Yolanda Peñaranda had briefed Baldoz, Conferido, Cacdac, Calzado, and Muñoz on the step-by-step process of assistance to repatriated OFWs.

Peñaranda said the airport assistance process starts when her unit receives from the Philippine foreign post a notice of the arrival of repatriated OFWs. The next step is for the OWWA to requests airport authorities for passes for assistance and support teams to enter the arrival area.

A third step is the identification of the repatriated OFWs near the tube where passengers disembark, and the fourth is assistance in the immigration procedure.

During this stage, RAD personnel ask the OFWs if their final destination is in the provinces, or if someone is fetching them from the airport, or if they would like to stay at the OWWA Halfway Home.

OWWA also provides medical and pyscho-social care to OFWs who may need it, and legal assistance to those with money claims.

Intensify repatriation, reintegration assistance

Baldoz instructed Calzado to intensify the provision of repatriation and reintegration assistance and services to OFWs including those from Libya and Iraq.

“The OWWA, in coordination with the POEA, the licensed recruitment agencies, and their insurance carriers, should now focus more on ensuring that OFW affected by instability and political upheavals should be brought home fast, safe, and sound,” she said. —Joel Locsin/KBK, GMA News

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