MANILA, 10 April 2008 — Eight stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will be finally home today after more than two months of waiting in Saudi Arabia.

Acting Labor and Employment Secretary and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Marianito Roque said that the OFWs are flying in via Malaysian Airlines flight 704 today.

Officials of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), OWWA and their families are expected to meet them. Financial assistance is to be handed to the OFWs upon their arrival in Manila.

The second batch of 23 OFWs are scheduled come on April 12.

Also on April 12, some 15 OFWs who were returned by Saudi immigration authorities to Riyadh will arrive in Manila on board Gulf Airways. These stranded OFWs were camped under the Khandara bridge in Jeddah before they were returned to Riyadh.

Another batch consisting of 16 OFWs who were retuned by Saudi immigration authorities to Alkhobar will fly in to Manila via Etihad Airways on April 15.

The number of homecoming stranded OFWs coming from the different regions of Saudi Arabia totals 62.

“I have been informed yesterday by our Philippine Overseas Labor Office and the Overseas Welfare Office of the OWWA that 62 OFWs facing various problems in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will finally be coming home in three batches, with the last batch coming in on April 15,” Roque said in a media release.

Roque said that Labor Attaché Adam Musa and Welfare Officer Romeo Pablo have helped process the documents of the returning OFWs.

Roque said the repatriation of the OFWs is part of the government’s continuing effort to assist OFWs in distress who wants to come home, even as he noted the strong cooperation between the DOLE and the DFA in extending all possible kind of assistance to OFWs in distress.

OWWA paid for the plane fares of the retuning OFWs who are regular members. The DFA paid for the plane fares of those who are not OWWA members.

The DFA had also reimbursed the plane fares of the three stranded OFWs who came home last March. Roque assured that all stranded OFWs will be given financial assistance at the airport.

All of them will return home penniless and with only the shirts on their back.