More than 1,600 Filipinos in Middle East return amid war

By Adrian H. Halili, Reporter

THE Department of Migrant Workers said that it has supported more than 1,600 Filipinos from the Middle East as the government’s push to bring Filipinos home amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

A total of 341 Filipinos from Saudi Arabia safely arrived in the country on Sunday, including 328 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and 13 dependents, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac said in a livestreamed news briefing on Sunday.

The repatriated Filipinos arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sunday at 7:07 a.m. through a Philippine Airlines flight.

This is on top of the 1,315 overseas Filipinos the agency helped repatriate, as of March 14, according to a statement on Sunday. This included 1,022 OFWs and 293 dependents.

Mr. Cacdac was quoted as saying that the government is prioritizing OFWs within high-risk areas, those who are sick, or have other humanitarian concerns as arrangement are being done for their safe return to the Philippines.

The agency said that it is ensuring continuous cooperation with other agencies to assist affected migrant workers through airport assistance, financial aid, repatriation, and reintegration services.

Repatriation efforts were funded under the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration’s (OWWA) P1.2-billion Emergency Repatriation Fund.

OWWA Administrator Patricia Yvonne M. Caunan said that most of the repatriated Filipinos were from Al Khobar and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, while others utilized a land border crossing from Bahrain.

“These were mostly distressed OFWs from the government’s Bahay Kalinga, they have been supported by the government even before the conflict started in the Middle East,” she said in Filipino.

Ms. Caunan added that additional chartered flights are being scheduled by the government to repatriate more Filipinos from the Middle East.

She said that the first batch of Filipinos from Kuwait are set to arrive home in the next few days.

“Fifty Filipinos, the first batch from Kuwait, are now in Riyadh and are expected to return to the country in the coming days,” she said in the same briefing.

The escalating conflict in the Middle East has placed millions of migrant workers in the region, including Filipinos, in precarious situations, with canceled flights, missile strikes, and oil hub attacks disrupting livelihoods and mobility.

According to data from the Philippines Foreign Affairs department, there are about 2.4 million Filipinos in the Middle East.

ACTIVE ASEAN RESPONSE
Analysts said that the Philippines as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should push for the activation of the regional bloc’s humanitarian response mechanisms to aid and extract OFWs affected by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Hansley A. Juliano, political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University, said that the regional bloc should utilize its ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance (AHA) Centre and its Emergency Response and Assessment Team (ERAT) to extract workers from the Middle Eastern countries.

The ERAT is a rapid deployment unit under the AHA Centre which seeks to support affected nations with assessments and response coordination during disasters.

“While these structures are usually deployed for natural disasters, it is perhaps most prudent to begin considering whether AHA and ERAT have the capacity to provide aid and extraction for ASEAN nationals,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

Mr. Juliano added that this move would also improve ASEAN cooperation and regional independence.

The Philippines may also propose a joint emergency evacuation among ASEAN countries, for workers affected by the Middle Eastern conflict, Josue Raphael J. Cortez, an ASEAN Studies lecturer at De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, said.

“With the Philippines chairing ASEAN this year, its embassies in the Middle East may lead coordination efforts for migrant workers’ refuge so as to ensure that collective action is carried out,” he said via Messenger chat.

Mr. Cortez added that the regional bloc must also formalize a regional framework on how to improve coordination in protecting migrant workers.

“All that is left to do at this point is to devise a regional roadmap aimed towards harmonizing standards in terms of reintegration of migrants who opt to be repatriated to their home countries,” he said, noting that an intra-ASEAN mobility and migration option could be studied.

Last week, the Philippines called for a Special ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting to address the escalating Middle East conflict, where minsters tackled the bloc’s shared commitment to ensure the safety and welfare of ASEAN nationals in the affected countries.

The meeting also focused on the possible creation of a “mutually beneficial collaboration with external parties” to ensure the safety of ASEAN nationals.