A total of 1,194 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the UAE have benefited from the amnesty program during the first two months of its implementation, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
Under the three-month amnesty program which began on August 1 and will end on October 31, overstaying Filipinos and other foreign nationals are given the opportunity to rectify their immigration status or to return to their home countries.
During the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano personally extended the country’s gratitude towards the UAE government, through Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, for granting thousands of overstaying OFWs of the opportunity to return home.
“We thank you not only for the hospitality extended to more than 600,000 of our fellow Filipinos but also for making it possible for those who do not have proper immigration status the opportunity to either regularize their stay or go home to their loved ones in the Philippines,” Cayetano said.
Cayetano also noted UAE’s efforts to protect the welfare of the OFWs in the Gulf state particularly the law for domestic workers that was signed last year.
Other sectors discussed during the meeting on the sides of the assembly was the cooperation between the Philippines and the UAE in the trade and investment sectors.
