Phl embassy in Beirut repatriates OFWs from Lebanon

Thursday 16th of August 2012

QUEZON CITY, Aug 16 (PIA) -- Seven Filipino workers in distress in Lebanon were repatriated through the assistance of the Philippine Embassy in Beirut.

Labor Attaché Irma Valiente and Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) officer Edwin Batallones sent off the workers at the Rafic Hariri International Airport. They arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on August 14, a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

Four of the repatriates are wards at the Embassy’s Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Resource Center (MWOFRC), while two of them were detainees at the General Security Center (Lebanese Immigration) and the other one came from the Caritas Lebanon Migrants Center (CLMC).

Majority of the repatriates were deployed to Lebanon in defiance of the deployment ban and subsequently left their respective employers due to complaints of maltreatment, unpaid salaries, overwork and forcible extension of employment contract.

The funding for the airfare of six of the repatriates was sourced from the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA’s) ATN funds. One of the returning OFWs paid for her own airfare.

Before the departure of the repatriates to the airport, Ambassador Ruiz briefed them at the Embassy and once again appealed to the workers to observe the deployment ban on Lebanon and also to assist in the Government’s information campaign so that Filipinos in their own communities will become aware of it and not allow themselves to be victimized by illegal recruiters and abusive employers in Lebanon.

She stressed that in the meantime both countries are in the process of ratifying the Philippines-Lebanon memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Labor Cooperation and its accompanying Protocol on Household Service Workers, which was signed by both countries in Beirut last February 1 (DFA)