66 Undocumented Filipinos fly back home

27/10/2019

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Undocumented and distressed Overseas Filipino Workers who availed themselves of the Embassy Assisted Repatriation Program for distressed overseas Filipinos line up at the check-in counter at Kuwait International Airport, prior to their flight back to the Philippines on 22 October 2019. (Kuwait PE photo)

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 26: The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait assisted in the repatriation of 66 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in distress, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. “Our efforts have brought home some 425 distressed Filipinos from Kuwait to date,” DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Y. Arriola was quoted as saying in a statement Thursday. “Our repatriation program is part of our mandate to protect Filipinos in distress abroad.” This is the eighth batch of OFWs that availed of the Embassy-Assisted Repatriation Program (EARP).

EARP assists OFWS with expired visas or who have absconded from employers. The program is funded through the DFA’s P1-billion Assistance to Nationals (ATN) Fund. The Embassy has so far spent a total of P9.2 million for the repatriation of OFWs from Kuwait.