Manila, Philippines – The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) confirmed that the government has evacuated 6,532 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
According to OWWA Administrator PY Caunan, this data came from the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and OWWA, including the dependents of the OFWs.
Of this number, there are 1,360 dependents, and OWWA also learned that more than 2,700 of the OFWs were evacuated due to conflict, almost 500 due to the termination of their contracts, and more than 200 returned home for medical reasons.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) data, as of April 20, out of the nearly 1,500 Overseas Filipinos who requested to be evacuated, the DFA has evacuated 1,352 from the Gulf nation.
The government had earlier said that Filipinos in the Middle East still need to undergo ground repatriation due to airspace security, because of possible aerial attacks between Washington and Tehran.
The tension between the United States and Iran has been going on for almost two months, but so far there are still three countries that have partially opened their airports, so there is still a possibility that this will change, depending on the situation in the region.
OWWA expects that there are still about 700 OFWs from the Middle East scheduled to arrive in the country in the coming days, through government-funded charter flights.
OWWA expects the next batch of repatriates to arrive in the country this week.
DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac previously said that about 2,000 more OFWs from the Middle East are scheduled to arrive in the country.—Alvin Pelobello, Eurotv News