MORE than 564,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have been brought back to the country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year, according to the Labor department.
“Every day, we’re bringing in a minimum 1,000-1,500,” Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III told a televised news briefing.
He said there are about 130,000 more awaiting repatriation.
He said as many as 3,000 OFWs could be repatriated daily if not for the current policy limiting inbound passengers to 1,500 per day.
Mr. Bello said about 80,000 migrant Filipino workers, mostly in Europe, have chosen to stay in their host countries.
There were 2.2 million OFWs worldwide, based on a 2019 survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Mr. Bello assured OFWs, including seafarers, who lost their jobs amid the global health emergency that they still have a high “chance for reemployment”
“It’s high time that we Filipinos realized na ‘yung ating (that our) Filipino seafarers are the most preferred seafarers in the world,” he said.
In a related development, Mr. Bello assured that the deployment of Filipinos to Israel will resume once the situation there improves.
More Filipinos are needed in Israel’s health and tourism sectors, he said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza