Thirty four thousand, and five hundred seventy nine overseas Filipino workers (OFW) have been assisted by the government in the first two years of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term, says the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Using its Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) Fund and Legal Assistance Fund (LAF), the DFA helped OFWs in bringing them home, including 1,476 victims of human trafficking.
Most of the beneficiaries of the funds are OFWs from Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, three top destinations for Filipinos working abroad.
Apart from the repatriation of stranded OFWs during hurricanes Irma and Jose in 2017, one notable milestone was ensuring the protection of household service workers through the Philippines-Kuwait Agreement on the Employment of Domestic Workers.
Distressed OFWs were also given a financial assistance of 5,000 pesos each upon returning to the Philippines, reported PNA.
