Another 51 Filipino migrant workers have been repatriated from the United Arab Emirates after complaining of abuse, the non-payment of wages and other mistreatment, the Department of Foreign Affairs revealed.
The DFA said in a statement that 702 Filipino workers have now returned home from the UAE since the start of this year. Repatriation costs, including workers’ exit visas and airfares, have been covered by the government.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the latest group to arrive home, who went to the UAE as tourists, “fell prey to illegal recruiters” and were forced to leave their employers or agencies.
Rowena R. Pangilinan-Daquipil, the Philippine charge d’affaires in Abu Dhabi, said his embassy will continue to address the concerns of Filipino workers, especially domestic workers.
“With the signing of the UAE Law for Domestic Workers and the Philippines-UAE Memorandum of Understanding on Labor Cooperation in 2017, the Embassy hopes that incidents of abuse, maltreatment, detention and other complaints of Filipino domestic workers will drop significantly,” Pangilinan-Daquipil said.
There are around 626,000 Filipinos in the UAE, according to the DFA, including 217,000 in Abu Dhabi.