DMW: 152 OFWs from Sudan to arrive in Philippines on Thursday

A total of 152 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from conflict-hit Sudan are set to arrive in the Philippines on Thursday, according to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).

DMW Secretary Susan Ople on Tuesday said the repatriated OFWs will return to the country in two batches and will arrive via Saudi Airlines on Thursday after flying out on Wednesday from Jeddah and Riyadh.

Ople also said the fresh batch of repatriates are among the 340 evacuees the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Philippine Embassy in Cairo assisted from Port Sudan to Aswan, Egypt.

“Our DMW and OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) teams continue to look after our distressed OFWs as part of our commitment to bring them home in close coordination, of course, with the DFA,” the DMW Secretary said in a press statement.

The government was also coordinating with Philippine Airlines (PAL) to bring home 140 more OFWs, who have yet to clear border processes in Egypt, via chartered flights.

PAL has a partnership with Egypt Air that would enable it to come up with flight arrangements from Cairo to Dubai and onward to Manila, Ople explained.

“For this week, we will have 152 arriving on May 4 from Egypt and another bigger batch of OFWs from Sudan coming home hopefully via a chartered PAL flight. OWWA and the DMW are committed to bringing as many of our kababayans home so that the process of healing from the trauma of Sudan’s civil war can commence,” she said.

The first batch of repatriates from Sudan, 17 Filipinos, arrived in Manila on Saturday.

On Monday, the DFA said at least 616 Filipinos had been evacuated out of Khartoum, Sudan, while more of them will be repatriated to the country in the next few days. — DVM, GMA Integrated News