DFA brings home 51 Filipinas maltreated in UAE

Fifty-one distressed women overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrived in Manila on Wednesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

DFA said the latest batch brings to 702 the total number of Filipinos who were repatriated from UAE since the start of the year.

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the latest batch of repatriates from Abu Dhabi fell prey to illegal recruiters.

“President Duterte’s marching order to the DFA is crystal clear: that we always fight for Filipinos wherever they are in the world,” Secretary Cayetano said.

The department said it shouldered the cost of the repatriation including the exit visas and airfare of the OFWs to their respective provinces.

Charge d’Affaires Rowena R. Pangilinan-Daquipil of the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi said the 51 Filipinos arrived in UAE as tourists, found work but eventually left their sponsors or agencies due to maltreatment, abuse, and non-payment of salaries.

She said the Philippine embassy works with UAE authorities to address the concerns of Filipino migrant workers, especially the Household Service Workers (HSWs).

“With the signing of the UAE Law for Domestic Workers and the Philippines-UAE Memorandum of Understanding on Labor Cooperation in 2017, the Embassy hopes that incidents of abuse, maltreatment, detention, and other complaints by Filipino domestic workers will drop significantly,” she said.

The embassy said there are 626,000 Filipinos in UAE, with close to 217,000 Filipinos living or working in Abu Dhabi.   /vvp