Nearly 24,000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Israel -- employed mostly as caregivers, service sector employees, and hotel workers -- have returned to work after massive rocket attacks in the Gaza strip last week.
This development was announced by Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople during a press briefing Friday, August 12, at the Blas F. Ople Building in Mandaluyong City.
According to the DMW, there are at least 23,754 OFWs currently employed in Israel amid an escalated tension with Palestine.
Meanwhile, Labor Attache Rodolfo Gabasan, of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO)-Israel, assured that around 200 Filipino caregivers in the cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Sderot as well as surrounding areas near Gaza were also safe following the incident of rocket attacks last August 5.
The Israeli government reported that over 1,000 rockets were fired by Israeli forces in the Gaza strip in response to threats made by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), with sirens blaring in southern Israeli communities near the border where the three cities are located.
Ople instructed Labor Attaches Gabasan and Armi Evangel Peña, of POLO-Jordan, to take advantage of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestine to check on the welfare and living conditions of the affected OFWs.
The ceasefire was mediated by the government of Egypt and took effect last August 7.
To date, the two labor officers reported that all Filipino workers in the affected countries were unharmed and went back to their employers. (Jun Marcos Tadios)