Bello: 250 Filipino workers from Kuwait arriving Tuesday

A total of 250 Filipino repatriates from Kuwait are set to arrive in the country on Tuesday, August 31, in response to their request for government assistance, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Monday.

Some 170 of the overseas Filipinos are domestic and company workers, while 80 were from the Migrant Workers and Other Overseas Filipinos Resources Center (MWOFRC).

“These workers have either finished their contracts or have expiring exit visas, and victims of various employment contract-related violations,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in an emailed statement.

Out of the repatriates, employers and companies shouldered the tickets for 200 while the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) paid for 50 of the workers.

The Filipinos are expected to arrive in the country at 4:50 p.m. on Tuesday, August 31, via a Qatar Airways flight arranged by the government. They will be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival, and receive quarantine accommodation and transport services for their travel back to their respective homes.

“This is due to the current restrictions and daily seat cap for arriving Filipino workers in the country,” Labor Attaché Nasser Mustafa said in the same statement.

The labor department said the special flight was given the exemption by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/RSJ, GMA News