180 of 600 OFWs expected from Kuwait for Wednesday arrive at NAIA


A batch of 180 distressed overseas Filipino workers, which is part of the 600 expected to be home on Wednesday  from Kuwait, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport early Wednesday.
Super Radyo dzBB's Mao dela Cruz reported on "Dobol B sa News TV" that the 180 OFWs arrived on Philippine Airlines flight 669 at 8:29 a.m. at NAIA.
Quoting officials of NAIA's Media Affairs Division, the report said that representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development welcomed the new arrivals and assisted the repatriates with immigration documentation processes to facilitate their reintegration under the government's Balik-bansa program.
Each of the distressed workers will be given P5,000 in initial assistance, the report added.
Those who have no relatives in the National Capital Region will be temporarily house housed by the OWWA, which will also shoulder the transportation expenses of the repatriates.
Batches of distressed OFWs from Kuwait have been arriving home after President Rodrigo Duterte's order for the Labor department to impose a total ban on deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait, precipitated by abuses against foreign workers in the host Gulf country that sometimes end in deaths.
As of Sunday, 1,700 distressed OFWs taking advantage of Kuwait's amnesty program for undocumented foreign workers have so far been repatriated.
Big batches of OFW arrivals from Kuwait began days after the arrival of the remains of Joanna Demafelis, who was killed by her Syrian and Lebanese employers a year ago and whose body was found inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait only recently.
The discovery of Joanna's remains had prompted President Duterte to order a total deployment ban, superseding an earlier temporary  ban. —LBG, GMA News

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