KUWAIT, Sep 6 ( Kuwait Times): A total of 430 airplane tickets were provided by the Kuwaiti government for the mass repatriation of Filipino runaway housemaids who were sheltered at the embassy in Jabriya.

The tickets provided by the Kuwait's Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor were handed over to the Philippine Embassy so as to help reduce the number of housed runaway maids. Yesterday morning, a total of 105 housemaids left Kuwait as part of the mass repatriation program. They were escorted by some officials from the Philippine embassy to a Gulf Air flight bound for Manila. This was the third batch of Filipino domestic helpers to be repatriated since the program began in June.

Most of these Filipina women ran away from their abusive sponsors' households and sought the embassy's assistance. They stayed at the embassy for months and even for years. Their complaints ranged from non-payment of salaries, over-work, lack of food - some were physically and verbally abused.

The Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Sulan Primavera expressed his gratitude to the Kuwaiti government for their generous support and humanitarian gesture.
The repatriated women, he said, are runaway housemaids, "Their employers have filed cases against them although they are minor ones but the government of Kuwait has been very helpful and they have been assisting us all the way," Primavera said. In a brief message to the departing workers, Primavera appealed to use their previous experiences here as guiding principles for their next endeavor.

The Philippine Labor Attache to Kuwait, Vivo Vidal, explained that the mass repatriation was not an amnesty but a joint program of the Philippine and the Kuwaiti governments that aims to decongest the shelter and alleviate the suffering of domestic helpers. "This mass repatriation program was offered to us by the Kuwaiti government; they had given us free tickets. They continuously assist us in our effort to repatriate our runaway housemaids. We still have about 250 allocations (reserved tickets) which we
intend to use soon," Vidal said.

He admitted though that the embassy still houses about 170 housemaids, "The problem is that we regularly repatriate workers, but we are also receiving tens of workers daily," Vidal disclosed. Vidal has also thanked the Al-Dacnan Agency to provide transportation (buses to the airport) and the Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity for helping them load and unload the luggage of departing housemaids.