OFWs staying put in Kuwait instead of coming home

MANILA, Philippines — With over 200,000 jobs available in five alternative markets for Filipina household helpers in Kuwait, the Philippine government is ready for the return en masse of the workers, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

But almost a week after President Duterte called on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Kuwait to come home, there are still no takers, DOLE Undersecretary Joji Aragon said yesterday.

“Up to now, even after the presidential pronouncement or enjoinment for them to voluntarily be repatriated, kung sino man ang gustong umuwi hanggang ngayon po sa Philippine Overseas Labor Office namin, wala kaming natatanggap pang mga desirous or interested to come home,” Aragon told the pilot show of The Chiefs on TV5.

She said they have been monitoring requests for repatriation and “the report is on an hourly basis, (but) up to now we have not received (any).”

The chairman of Migrante-Philippines, Arman Hernando, told the same TV show that OFWs in Kuwait are worried about the lack of alternative employment if they return to the Philippines.

Aragon said the DOLE has 206,362 job orders for household workers in alternative job markets as of last December: 154,511 in Hong Kong, 30,699 in Singapore, 11,325 in Cyprus, 6,619 in Brunei and 3,308 in Macau.

Hernando, however, said the OFWs in Kuwait would have to compete for those jobs with other applicants in the Philippines.

He said the OFWs are worried about the impact on their jobs of the current diplomatic row between the Philippines and Kuwait.

The concern, he said, is spreading even to OFWs in other countries in the Middle East, where governments have been monitoring developments in Kuwait after Philippine officials said an agreement being worked out on the treatment of migrant workers would serve as a model.

According to DOLE Undersecretary Jacinto Paras, skilled OFWs in Kuwait cannot be expected to come home.

Paras said at the most, those who will heed Duterte’s call are the OFWs who face various forms of exploitation and abuses at the hands of their employers. 

He told The STAR that no immediate employment may be provided for the OFWs who may return home. 

But he said the government will provide “skills enhancement training” among those with potential to prepare them for future employment abroad.

“We can have massive training to make them skilled workers. This means they will no longer work in domestic service and they will become skilled workers instead,” he said.

Paras added with this, the employment level of the trained OFWs will increase, thus enabling them to work as care givers and factory workers, among others, in other countries.