OFWs Starts to Arrive from Kuwait Amid the 72-Hour Deadline Imposed by President Duterte

After the official confirmation of President Rodrigo Duterte of the deployment ban of Overseas Filipino Workers to Kuwait, he ordered the OFWs in the country to start going back to the Philippines too. The official confirmation happened after a lifeless body of an OFW in Kuwait was found in a freezer.

Firm Order of President Duterte

The fourth batch of 25 distressed OFWs arrived early morning today, February 11 from Kuwait. Several batches of OFWs are expected to arrive home after the deployment ban from the Department of Labor and Employment, in compliance with the order of President Rodrigo to stop sending workers to Kuwait. This also includes those who are on vacation and were expected to come back to the country.

Duterte’s order came after receiving reports of mysterious deaths of OFW in the Gulf state, especially household office workers. According to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, the president wants a total deployment ban, separating the previous order of suspending the processing of new employment certificates.

This time, what the president wanted is a total deployment ban.

72 Hours to Leave Kuwait

President Duterte has given OFWs in Kuwait 72 hours to decide to come home. However, it is still unclear when the 72-hour deadline would start.

Meanwhile, two of the largest local airlines in the country will be mounting special charter flights from Kuwait to Manila. One of this is the low-cost airlines Cebu Pacific who agreed to fly back OFWs for free.

Cebu Pacific (CEB) is mounting a special charter flight from Kuwait to Manila for free. This is in response to the call for assistance by the government to repatriate Filipino workers in Kuwait.

Cebu Pacific will be deploying an Airbus A330 aircraft which has a maximum capacity of 436 passengers. Free food and refreshments, as well as baggage allowances, will be given to all passengers on the flight too.