1,022 OFWs repatriated since January

‘Shelter receives 20 workers daily’

KUWAIT CITY, March 23: The Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Kuwait, Jose Almodóvar Cabrera III, said work at the new embassy headquarters in the Sabah Al-Salem suburb will begin before the end of next April, while Acting Labor Consul Cathy Doladol said 1,022 Filipino domestic workers have already been repatriated to the Philippines as of last January and added more are waiting for their legal documents to be processed in preparation for their return, reports Al-Rai daily.

She pointed out that “the repatriation program of the Bureau of Migrant Workers, and the Department of Foreign Workers’ Welfare is done in cooperation with the embassy, and is an ongoing project of the Philippine government to assist Filipino workers abroad to return to their country.”

She stated that “the process of repatriation is carried out in cooperation with the Kuwaiti Ministries

of Foreign Affairs and Interior,” pointing out that “the return of Filipino workers continues, and flight times will be scheduled almost daily, regardless of the number of workers whose documents have been processed in preparation for leaving the country.”

She indicated that “more than 637 domestic workers from the shelter and Kuwait’s deportation center have left since the beginning of this March, and the last batch consisted of 130 workers who left on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, informed sources said that “there are 329 female workers in the shelter, and about twenty domestic workers are received in the shelter on a daily basis,” noting that “the majority of them are newcomers who refuse to work in the desire to obtain a better job opportunity outside Kuwait”, while others refuse to work because the sponsor does not adhere to the terms of the contract.