{"id":160121,"date":"2018-04-16T04:11:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T08:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=160121"},"modified":"2018-04-16T04:11:32","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T08:11:32","slug":"200-filipinos-including-infants-depart-from-kuwait-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/16\/200-filipinos-including-infants-depart-from-kuwait-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"200 Filipinos, including infants, depart from Kuwait Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The amnesty is set to expire April 22, leaving at least 5,000 more undocumented Filipinos who has yet registered for the program at risk of crackdown. Citing the data from Kuwait\u2019s Ministry of Interior, DFA said there are more than 10,000 overstaying and runaway Filipinos in the Gulf state. (PNA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KUWAIT<\/strong>\u00a0— The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is repatriating a batch of 200 undocumented Filipinos, including 18 infants below two years old, on Monday (April 16, 2018) under the amnesty program granted by the Kuwaiti government for Filipinos.<\/p>\n

In an interview here at the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait, DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said this number adds to the total repatriated of 4,164 Filipinos as of April 14.<\/p>\n

The amnesty is set to expire April 22, leaving at least 5,000 more undocumented Filipinos who has yet registered for the program at risk of crackdown. Citing the data from Kuwait\u2019s Ministry of Interior, DFA said there are more than 10,000 overstaying and runaway Filipinos in the Gulf state.<\/p>\n

“We’re really hoping\u00a0na may mga humabol pa, kasi sa tingin ko<\/em>, before 22\u00a0makakapag-uwi tayo ng<\/em>\u00a0a little less than 5,000 Filipinos [We’re really hoping there would be more that would avail of the program, and\u00a0before the 22nd, we can bring home a little less than 5,000 Filipinos] ,” Arriola said.<\/p>\n

Although the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait gave a deadline on April 12 for registration, Arriola said no Filipinos, until April 22, will be denied from amnesty application.<\/p>\n

“Gagawa’t gagawa kami ng paraan para maihabol yung<\/em>\u00a0exit\u00a0nila<\/em>\u00a0[we will do our best to beat the deadline] before April 22,\u00a0kasi<\/em>\u00a0[because] after that, crackdown\u00a0na, manghuhuli na, ikukulong na,<\/em>\u00a0then total ban\u00a0na sila rito sa<\/em>\u00a0Kuwait\u00a0at may fine pa iyon\u00a0<\/em>[they would be\u00a0imprisoned\u00a0and fined],” she added.<\/p>\n

The official said all who registered for repatriation will receive a PHP5,000 cash from the DFA in Manila. This, in addition to the labor department’s cash assistance and the livelihood package they can apply for.<\/p>\n

“Just to give you a rough idea, more than 1\/3 of our operations sa DFA is going to Kuwait,” she said when asked how much of the Assistance to Nationals (ATN)\u00a0fund has already been disbursed in Kuwait repatriations. She continued: “Sabi naman ni<\/em>\u00a0President Rodrigo Duterte,\u00a0gamitin niyo<\/em>\u00a0whatever you have, so\u00a0lahat ng<\/em>\u00a0resources\u00a0natin, halos lahat, nakatutok dito\u00a0<\/em>[The President instructed us to use whatever we have so our resources are poured here].<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Among others, Arriola assured that government agencies are in close coordination to direct other Filipinos in labor markets being opened in other countries.<\/p>\n

“We are also doing the best we can to see other places like China, Czech Republic\u00a0para makapag-apply rin sila\u00a0<\/em>[so they can apply],” Arriola said.<\/p>\n

From January 29, the start of the amnesty program, Arriola said more than 5,000 OFWs registered. Of this figure, around 560 registered on April 12, with still more expected to apply this week.<\/p>\n

“Tinulungan din namin ang ating mga kapatid sa<\/em>\u00a0Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) Kuwait\u00a0na mag-uwi ng mga kapatid natin sa\u00a0<\/em>shelter\u00a0kasi ang<\/em>\u00a0goal\u00a0ay<\/em>\u00a0to bring everyone home [We are also helping POLO Kuwait to bring home our fellow Filipinos in the shelter because the goal is to bring everyone home.],” Arriola said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUWAIT\u00a0— The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is repatriating a batch of 200 undocumented Filipinos, including 18 infants below two …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":160122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[9396,204,4326,17906],"class_list":["post-160121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-dfa","tag-kuwait","tag-philippine-embassy","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}