FILIPINOS who requested to be repatriated from several Middle East countries are set to safely return home to the Philippines in the coming days, Malacañang announced.
In a media interview in New York late Monday evening, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro said the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has arranged chartered flights for Filipinos wanting to flee the hostilities.
“Today, 16 OFWs from Tel Aviv (Israel) traveled by land to the southern Israel town of Eilat, which borders Egypt via the Taba border crossing. These 16 OFWs cross the Egyptian border and will take the Cairo to Muscat to Manila flight with ETA Manila on March 11, 9:30 p.m., Philippine time,” Castro said on the sidelines of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s engagements at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters.
“We have 20 OFWs (from Dubai) with nine OFW dependents who travel from Dubai to Oman via the Khatmat-Malaha border crossing in northern Oman. Upon crossing the Omani border, they go to Muscat and take the Muscat to Manila flight with ETA Manila on March 10, 9:30 p.m. Philippine time,” she added.
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Philippine government also booked commercial flights for overseas Filipino workers and their dependents coming from Dubai, while flights are now also being arranged for citizens in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with the earliest departure on March 14.
This repatriation operation will be funded through the Emergency Repatriation Fund of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), an attached agency of the DMW, Castro further noted.
More than 400 Filipinos have returned to the Philippines since the conflict in the Middle East began on Feb. 28.
