MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 4, 2012) – The lack of jobs and poor economic conditions in the Philippines have forced millions of Filipinos to work abroad to help alleviate their families from poverty, but thousands also die in foreign countries each year due to various causes and all these in the face of grim realities of intensified forced migration, the Migrante-Middle East.
“The grim reality is there were thousands Filipino families lost their beloved breadwinners working in far, far away land as overseas workers since the birth of the Philippine government’s labor export program in 1972,” said John Leonard Monterona, the group’s regional coordinator.
He said that in 2006 alone, at least 5 cadavers of overseas Filipino workers who died from various causes, were sent back home almost on a daily basis.
“In a year, there were about 1,850 OFWs cadavers repatriated. In ten years time, from 2006 to 2015, the figure will reach to an estimate of 18,500 cadavers,” Monterona said.
But he said latest monitoring reports showed an alarming increase in the number of cadavers being sent home.
“Now, OFWs remains repatriated on a daily basis landing in various Philippine international airports range from 7 to 10,” Monterona said, but he quickly added that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration-Repatriation Unit has yet to confirm this report.
“Since the beginning of the Philippine government labor export program in 1972 until this date, our estimate of OFWs remains repatriated to the Philippines reached between 35,000 to close 40,000,” he said. “A considerable percentage of this figure, let’s say about 40% were due to natural deaths and accidents.”
Monterona explained that the figure is in proportion to the surging numbers of OFWs cases involving labor malpractices and abuses that lead to deaths, some in mysterious ways, not only in the Middle East but also in other OFWs countries of destination around the world.
“This is part of the grim realities of intensified forced migration, and it’s no joke. Is the incumbent Aquino administration aware of this? And I say certainly, yes. But the government keeps on peddling million of unemployed Filipinos every year as it continues to look for labor markets abroad amid its poor performance in local jobs generation,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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