MANILA, 28 April 2005 — Saudi Arabia based Filipino community leaders praised the creation by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) of a halfway home for returning distressed OFWs.
In an e-mail message to OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque, Ronnie Abeto and Rashid Fabricante, action officers of Pusong Mamon Task Force in Saudi Arabia, said the “halfway home” will surely benefit the hundreds of OFWs in distress (male and female) repatriated from various OWWA shelter houses on site.
“We hope that with your continued efforts, more projects and programs could be extracted from the drawing board making OWWA’s vision and mission create an impact and difference in the daily struggle of our co-OFWs especially those who have not been so lucky with their plight as overseas Filipinos wherever they are,” they said in the message.
The OWWA Halfway Home for OFWs was formally opened last April 18 with the five OFWs from Iraq who were fired upon by unidentified forces on their way to the Baghdad International Airport early Monday morning as the first “customers.”
The OFWs had been deployed to Iraq by the Jordan-based company, Dawood & Partners in violation of a ban on the deployment of workers there.
Dawood & Partners provides catering services to US military facilities in Iraq.
The five asked for voluntary repatriation back to the Philippines, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said. A statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the five workers decided not to complete their contracts because of sporadic mortar attacks on the facilities.
Roque said the halfway home would be able to accommodate 40 distressed OFWs at a time. These transient OFWs would be provided with free board and lodging, recreation and even debriefing for those who carried additional “mental baggage.”
“They (distressed OFWs) are to be pitied. Consider that they have been stranded abroad, sometimes for a month, even three months and they are leaving there in a destitute condition. When they arrive here, let’s give them some comfort before we finally turn them over to their families,” Roque told Arab News.
He added that accommodation at the Halfway Home would depend on the recommendation of the labor attaches at the various work sites.
“We have a schedule of inbounds from our welfare officers abroad. At least a one page case profile is being forwarded to us. At least three days in advance, we will know our load,” Roque said.
He said with the completion of the halfway home, he was turning his attention to the renovation of the OWWA hostel on the upper floors of the OWWA Building in Pasay.
OFWs wishing to stay there would pay only a nominal fee. In exchange, Roque said he would bring up the hostel to international standards equivalent to a one-star hotel.
The hostel was first operated when OWWA first transferred to their present building in the early 80’s.
