A total of 126 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Abu Dhabi who availed of the UAE general amnesty program arrived in the Philippines on Friday, October 5.
Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Hjayceelyn Quintana said that the amnesty grantees were the fifth batch of repatriated Filipinos from Abu Dhabi.
With the arrival of the latest batch of OFWs, the total number of repatriated Filipinos from the UAE has increased to 1,765 – 1,014 of whom were sheltered at the Philippine Embassy while 751 were walk-in clients. Many are illegal recruitment victims.
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.
