More than 300 Filipino workers arrived home Friday aboard special flights arranged with Kuwait Air, bringing the government’s total repatriation count to 9,696 — and pushing the Philippines to within striking distance of a 10,000-milestone in its ongoing response to overseas job disruptions.
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan said around 3,000 Filipinos based in Kuwait have now been brought home through coordinated operations involving her agency, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Some workers have been flown out directly from Kuwait, while others continue to be routed through Dammam, Saudi Arabia, where commercial flight options remain limited.
DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the 10,000 threshold is expected to be crossed in the coming days as additional arrivals are scheduled under both chartered and commercial arrangements.
Financial aid has also been extended in parallel with the repatriation effort. The government has so far provided approximately $200 each to 25,246 OFWs affected by work disruptions — a group that includes both workers still stationed abroad facing reduced hours, lower pay, or fewer shifts, and those who have already returned to the Philippines and received assistance before departure or upon landing.
During their Kuwait mission, Cacdac and Caunan made site visits that included a hospital in Kuwait City, where they met with Filipino health professionals, among them nurses and medical technologists. The two officials also traveled to a construction site near the Saudi border, south of Kuwait City, where Filipino workers are employed in a coastal development project.
Workers at the construction site raised the idea of reviving a “service caravan” — a mobile outreach program that previously deployed multiple government agencies to deliver services directly to Filipinos working abroad.
