The Department of Migrant Workers has assembled a pool of roughly 200,000 job orders to absorb returning overseas Filipino workers displaced by rising tensions in the Middle East, with the total number of repatriated Filipinos now surpassing 4,000.
Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the agency has enough information about the workers’ backgrounds to begin matching them to available positions right away. “We are prepared for their arrival in the Philippines. Approximately 200,000 job orders are already available. We have an understanding of their profiles and respective fields of work, which allows us to align them with suitable employment opportunities. We are also considering the conduct of job fairs to enable them to explore alternative employment in other countries should they lose their jobs in the UAE,” he said.
Beyond job placement, Cacdac said returning workers can expect financial assistance, temporary shelter, and livelihood support from the government.
DMW data placed the cumulative number of repatriated OFWs and their dependents at 4,241 as of April 3. The figure includes arrivals through multiple channels: a batch of 344 reached Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Good Friday aboard the government’s seventh chartered flight from the United Arab Emirates, among them 228 OFWs, 68 dependents, and 48 stranded Filipinos. Separately, 198 OFWs and 46 dependents from Bahrain landed at NAIA Terminal 3 on the same day via Gulf Air Flight 0154, having crossed by land through Bahrain before flying out of Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Approximately 1,500 OFWs and their dependents, the majority from the UAE, remain in the queue for repatriation.
