The Department of Migrant Workers is coordinating with their Kuwaiti counterparts to speed up the repatriation process of over 300 distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
“Our Department’s goal is to reduce the number of welfare cases in Kuwait in partnership with the private sector and Kuwaiti government, while bringing home and assisting as many distressed OFWs as possible,” Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople said in a statement from Davos, Switzerland. The Secretary is part of the presidential delegation to the World Economic Forum.
DMW officials led by Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac and Administrator Arnell Ignacio of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) held several meetings in Kuwait with officials of the Kuwaiti government over the weekend to discuss the plight of OFWs.
Cacdac and Ignacio met Dr. Fahad Ali Murad, head of the Public Authority for Manpower, as well as Amala (Labor Court) Deputy Officer Fahad Alkandari and General Walid Al Ali, head of the Talha Deportation Center.
The officials discussed ways to address the concerns of distressed OFWs, particularly runaway domestic workers.
Ople also said the DMW is working to upgrade the facilities at government-run shelters in Kuwait and in other countries.
Ople said that she personally saw the congestion and unhealthy living conditions in the current shelter in Kuwait after a virtual tour conducted by the DMW team.
