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Pinoy Abroad
Philippines has until July 4 to bring home remains of OFWs from Saudi Arabia —DOLE
By TED CORDERO, GMA News The Philippine government has until the end of the week to bring home the remains of 274 overseas Filipino workers, including those who died of COVID-19, from Saudi Arabia, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Wednesday.
“By July 4, dapat maiuwi natin ang ating mga minamahal na kababayan,” Bello said during the Laging Handa public briefing.
“We have to do that dahil kung hindi ay ililibing na ng Saudi government ang ating mga kababayan. We are doing our best, para ma-meet lahat ng requirements, including health protocols, ‘yung mga exit visa, pahintulot ng mga employer, pahintulot ng mga next of kin... We have to get all of these and we will try to bring them by July 4, mailipad natin sila,” the Labor chief said.
Bello said of the 301 deceased OFWs, 152 of them succumbed to COVID-19 while 149 died of “natural causes.”
Of the 152 who died of COVID-19, 23 have already been buried by the Saudi government.
Meanwhile, four of the 149 who died of other causes were already sent back home by their kins.
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In a separate statement, the DOLE said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) gave an assurance to allow more airlines to fly for OFW repatriation.
The CAAP has been strictly regulating flights in the country to help control the spread of the deadly coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19).
The restriction, however, has prevented the government to maximize its initiatives to fetch migrant workers who want to return home after losing their jobs because of the outbreak.
In a congressional hearing on Friday, CAAP Director General Jim Sydiongco said the agency is willing to increase the number of flights to bring home more OFWs.
“Our permit to fly is actually based on requests and not on restrictions. So if government agencies request more flights to help our displaced workers abroad, we allow them,” Sydiongco said.
Bello said the assurance from CAAP is good news for the repatriation efforts led by the labor department to aid thousands of crisis-hit migrant workers around the globe.—AOL, GMA News