THE Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has received a pat on the back from the Commission on Audit for the continuing decline in the number of requests for repatriation in the last two years.
From 9,284 requests in 2019, the number decreased to just 6,404 in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic first broke out. As of last year, it has further dropped to 6,054.
However, by the agency’s own figures, Filipinos employed as household service or domestic workers remain the most vulnerable by far with 4,638 requests submitted last year, followed by laborers (223) and cleaners (190).
Workers who have the fewest requests are painters and caregivers or babysitters.
Focusing on countries with the highest number of repatriations, the POEA signed various memoranda of agreement for the protection of OFWs.
“It is commendable that the government, through its instrumentalities, has drafted several MOAs with various countries with many OFWs. However, some of the agreements were signed/ratified almost 10 years ago although the same have an automatic renewal clause,” the COA noted.
The agreements were signed with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Lebanon.
Among these countries, OFWs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia submitted the biggest number of requests to be flown home to the Philippines with 4,598, followed by Kuwait with 507, and 368 from Qatar.
Auditors, however, pointed out that OFWs had to wait a long time from the moment their requests are sent before they can receive assistance.
“Validation revealed that there are instances wherein these requests were not acted as swiftly as expected. There are times that requests are acted upon almost a year after …thereby exposing the OFWs to further risk,” the COA said.
It recommended that POEA take steps to hold accountable manpower agencies that make money by deploying OFWs but fail to render assistance in securing exit visas and airline tickets.
