Ricky Laxa
Staff Writer
The Philippine overseas Labor Office and Oversees Workers Welfare Administration (POLO – OWWA) in Kuwait have repatriated about one thousand workers so far via free tickets provided for Filipinos who may wish to go home but are facing financial and visa or legal situations, said Assistant Labor Attaché Cathy Duladul in an interview with The Times Kuwait.
“We have repatriated so far about 1000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from Kuwait since the start of the pandemic, and we continuously accommodate requests from our nationals,” added Duladul. Fifteen percent of those repatriates were Filipinos with expired visas, loss of jobs due to company closures, and eighty-five percent were housekeepers who sought refuge in the embassy shelter due to employers’ maltreatments and other issues involved.
Duldadul clarified concerns that families wishing to return home and belong to these cases apply only to parents who are OWWA and POLO members and children are not covered. Seventeen chartered flights have successful returned home OFWs to Philippines and three have been cancelled due to lack of passengers. “I am thankful to POLO OWWA for giving us the chance to return safe and sound. It was a difficult process but the staffs’ assistance made the whole repatriation procedures easier. My whole family is grateful,” stated Susan, a mother of three. Paulita Lundang of KAPICO Travels added that a chartered flight bound to Philippines is scheduled on the 25th of the month.
Duladul mentioned that there have been five hundred and seventy processed and approved documents of COVID -19 OFW survivors entitled to financial assistance and about 15% have been released so far as budget allocation from the Philippine government has been temporarily suspended which includes the 10,000 DOLE AKAP recipients. “We will resume distribution when our government is able to send the allocated budget, we do apologize for this delay as everything has to depend on the availability of the cash provisions,” added Duladul. To add, Welfare Officer Atty. Lyn Perez stated that to date there have been 30,000 food packs distributed to Filipinos in Kuwait.
POLO OWWA services remain limited via personal transactions but available mostly online. Should there be any queries regarding the services, they may check or log in on the Facebook Account: @POLO.OWWA.KUWAIT / Email: polokuwait2017@gmail.com / Labor and Welfare Concerns: ADVISORY JOINT ASSISTANCE DESK: jadpolokuwait@gmail.com / Call: 94039063