OWWA: 492,000 OFWs repatriated since start of pandemic

HOMECOMING- OFWs who have finished their 14 day quarantine in the city troop to the NAIA Terminal 2 to catch a flight bound for their hometowns in Visayas and Mindanao, after spending time in quarantine facilities in Metro Manila. INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — About 492,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have been repatriated and sent back to their home provinces since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said Friday.

“Approaching half a million mark na po tayo,” OWWA administrator Hans Cacdac said in a Laging Handa public briefing.

At present, there are about 7,000 recently repatriated OFWs who are quarantined in 135 hotels in the country, he added.

All repatriated OFWs were provided by the government with food, transportation, and hotel quarantine accommodation.

Due to the emergence of new coronavirus variants, returning OFWs were required to undergo five days of quarantine first before getting swab-tested, which prolonged their stay in hotels from the previous one to three days to up to seven to nine days, Cacdac said.

Meanwhile, about 450,000 displaced OFWs have been given P10,000 cash aid under the “DOLE-AKAP” program of the Department of Labor and Employment, he added.

EDV