MANILA: A total of 80 overseas Filipino workers were repatriated by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA). They arrived from Kuwait and Jordan on New Year's Day after immigration authorities in both countries there allowed them to fly home.

OWWA Administrator Carmelita Dimzon said all the repatriated workers will have arrived yesterday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport from several different flights.

Thirty of the arriving Filipinos are among 157 runaways who sought shelter with the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait. Dimzon said the remaining 127 were still completing immigration pre-departure procedures but had been booked for flights out of the country.

Under Jordanian and Kuwaiti immigration laws, migrant workers can leave only if they have obtained clearance from their employers," she was quoted as saying to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "Negotiations involving runaway workers often take several months. Once the workers are cleared, OWWA books the workers with an airline immediately.

She added that OWWA also provides inland transport fares to the workers for their journey back to their provinces. OFW group, Migrante-Middle East, said more than 300 Filipinos remain stranded in Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Migrante-Mideast regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona, who is based in Riyadh, said in a statement sent by e-mail that the OFWs were homesick and wished to be with their families during the holidays. He said 265 laborers, mostly runaways, are staying in a safe house reportedly managed by the Philippine consulate in Jeddah but that living conditions there were poor.

They complained about a lack of food, water and medicines. Some became sick due to cold weather," Monterona said, quoting one of the Filipinos in the safe house. The safe house occupant also relayed that the accommodations are for men and women, as well as those with children. The person also went on to say that two pregnant Filipinos had given birth there.

Monterona said the information he received from the Migrante chapter in Jeddah informed him that some of the workers would be turned over to Saudi immigration authorities, who would then deport them. Aside from the 265 in Jeddah, Monterona said there are 89 distressed workers seeking shelter at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, who were also unable to return home in time for the holidays. - Kuwait Times