OWWA lacks control over deportation centers

THE Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration (OWWA) on Wed-nesday clarified that they had no control on deportation centers run by the host country. The clarification was made by OWWA Administrator Carmelita Dimzon after her office is being blamed for the lost of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have decided to leave the center. The OFWs decided to escape from their employers, claiming they are treated as slaves and not as a worker.

She said that they immediately process the papers of runaway OFWs to send them back to the country if they fail to get new employers giving them another job.

She claimed that it is not that easy to process the papers because their welfare officers need to ask permission from immigration authorities of the host country.

According to Dimzon, before they can send food and doctors to check the health conditions of OFWs, they also need to seek clearance from the same authorities.

The OWWA official said that the families of the OFWs who are now being held at the deportation centers should not worry for the agency is on top of the situation and it will continue to coordinate with the authorities to send back their runaway loved ones.

“We are instructed by Department of Labor Sec. Rosalinda Baldoz to fast track our repatriation and we are doing our job,” Dimzon said.

She said Baldoz had committed to President Benigno Aquino 3rd that they would prioritize the repatriation of OFWs especially in the Middle East.

Records show that they were able to repatriate at least 700 OFWs from Jeddah, Kuwait and Bahrain in the past five weeks after they shouldered the airfare.

Dimzon insists that they are having a hard time in securing clearances at the immigration office of the host country but upon presenting the said document, they immediately process the papers of OFWs to repatriate them. –SAMMY MARTIN, Manila Times