312 OFWs from Ethiopia repatriated

312 Filipino Workers from Ethiopia Return Home to the Philippines: https://t.co/SF67f1kvPW

A total of 312 Filipino workers in Kombulcha, Ethiopia are returning home via Qatar Airways to the Philippines on 29 April 2020.#AssistanceToNationals#WeHealAsOne#DFAinACTION pic.twitter.com/l5Ey0hiPfZ

— DFA Philippines 🇵🇭 (@DFAPHL) April 29, 2020

MANILA – A total of 312 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Kombolcha, Ethiopia are returning home via Qatar Airways to the Philippines on Wednesday.

They are employed by Yapı Merkezi, Inc., a Turkish company specializing in the design and construction of buildings, heavy construction, and railway projects.

The OFWs left Kombolcha for Addis Ababa on the evening of April 27 for their flight to Doha, and then for their onward flight to Manila.

The repatriation of the Filipino workers was made possible by the organization and funding of Yapi Merkezi in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in Egypt, which assisted in the documentation and the coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.

Before their repatriation, the Filipinos worked as machine operators, skilled workers, and engineers in the Awash- Kombolcha-Hara Gebaya (AKH) railway project in the Amhara region in northern Ethiopia.

The first group of 30 Filipinos arrived at the AKH construction site in April 2017. (DFA PR)