Philippine Consul-General Paul Raymond Cortes said in an interview with Gulf News on Tuesday, January 16, 2018, that they are ready to cater welfare assistance to a large number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following the budget expansion from P400 million to P1 billion (Dh72.5 million).
As per Cortes, it is President Rodrigo Duterte’s request to the Philippine Congress to increase the Assistance-To-Nationals (ATN) Fund and Legal Assistance Fund to be able to attend to the OFWs needs worldwide.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation tallied over 618,726 Filipinos working in the UAE, as of 2016; 7,000 of them were given assistance, but Cortes is expecting greater number this year.
In line with this, Cortes advised the OFWs not to hesitate in approaching the Consulate about legal assistance and resolve cases which were mostly about distressed household service workers and immigration.
Photo credit: dubaipcg
