Bring us home, 109 OFWs appeal

DMW waiting for Israel air space to open

- By AARON RECUENCO

At least 109 overseas Filipino workers are seeking government assistance to get repatriated amid the escalating air raids and missile attacks between Israel and Iran, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said on Tuesday, June 17.

Forty-three other Filipinos, 23 of them children, arrived Tuesday from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where they got stranded. They were en route to Jordan when they were caught by the Israel-Iran conflict.

DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said they are continuously monitoring the situation in Israel to come up with measures for the immediate repatriation of OFWs already on their list.

"The air space and airports are currently closed, hopefully, we would have the opportunity for repatriation once there would be an opening of air space," said Cacdac in an interview over GMA.

Of the 109 OFWs from Israel on their list, Cacdac said 85 of them have already signified the intention to leave before Israel conducted air raids in key facilities in Iran on Friday last week.

He said 25 more OFWS were listed in the past few days, after the first wave of ballistic missiles from Iran that hit key areas in Israel.

Cacdac said they are looking into other measures on how to bring OFWs on the repatriation list to a safe ground where they would be picked for their travel back to the Philippines.

PH gov't ready to assist Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega assured that the Philippine government, through its embassies, is ready to assist and repatriate Filipinos from Israel.