by : Claro A. Lanipa
Pagadian City, 06 June (PIA) –- Of the
90,482 documented deportees nationwide as of May 5, 2012, 14.88 percent or 16,
898 are from the Zamboanga Peninsula region, Agapita Bendoy, Social Welfare
Officer II of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regional Field Office IX said.
During the weekly PIA Media Forum held
on Tuesday (June 5, 2012) at the Abegail
Hall, Roxan Hotel, this city, Bendoy said these deportees are Overseas Filipino
Workers (OFWs), who has no legal
documents to support the legality of their stay in foreign land and were sent
back to the place of their origin.
Based on the June 2007 data from the
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) shows that there were 7.1 million OFWs all
over the world, and around 443,768 of them are irregular OFWs, meaning they
went abroad to seek employment without proper or legal papers, Bendoy reported.
Not all OFWs who sought employment
outside the country landed successfully or economically triumphant. Some of
them were abused, accused of immigration law violations, trafficked victims and
victims of illegal recruiters, and were deported, she added.
Zamboanga Peninsula was among the region
with high prevalence on the number of deportees in the country, probably
because of its location and easy accessibility in going down south to Malaysia
and other nearby Asian countries.
It was also learned that deportees found
difficulties in reintegrating to the communities and hard for them to
overcome the negative experiences they encountered in other countries. They
also found out that there is no adequate or appropriate assistance given by the government and other stakeholders.
To address this situation, the national
government initiated a project called “Reintegration Program for Deportees,
Repartriates and Returning Irregular OFWs” in order to provide comprehensive
services and help alleviate the flight of deportees and irregular OFWs. The project was piloted in
Region IX in June 2009.
Ms. Almalyn Baiting, Program Focal
Person, discussed briefly the different components and services of the program
as follows: Psychosocial Interventions; Assistance in Crisis Situation (AICS);
Economic and Livelihood Assistance; Emergency Shelter Assistance; Educational
Assistance; and Referral Services in collaboration with other government and
non-government agencies.
On the other hand, Narrabelle Bue, DSWD
IX Information Officer said to look into these problem the government organized
the so-called Task Force Deportees which
is composed of DSWD, Department of Labor
and Employment (DOLE), National Statistics Office (NSO), Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration
(OWWA), Commission on Audit (COA), Department of Education (DepEd), National
Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Philippine National Police (PNP) and other
stakeholders. (CAL/PIA9)