MANILA, Philippines — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) yesterday appealed to relatives of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) working in Syria to encourage them to go back to the country and avail of the mandatory repatriation offered by the government due to that country’s situation.

The OWWA is offering the “Libreng Tawag sa Syria” to families who want to call OFWs in Syria to inform them of government’s readiness to assist them.

The “Libreng Tawag sa Syria” is a part of OWWA information dissemination urging OFWs to leave Syria.

The OWWA reported that since the start of the mandatory repatriation, they have recorded a total of 703 OFWs who left Syria.

Last Friday, three separate batches of OFWs arrived in the country totaling to 79.

The OWWA recorded only those who have arrived at 4:20 p.m. totaling to 32 on board Emirates Air flight EK 332 while another 39 arrived at 10:15 p.m. on board Qatar Airways flight QR644.

OWWA Acting Administrator Josefino I. Torres said the composite team of DFA, DoLE and OWWA made the repatriation possible through negotiations with foreign employers to release workers from their contracts.

Torres said that exit clearances and other documentary requirements were issued to OFWs after their employers agreed to let the workers go home.

He said that more workers were expected to come home within the next days as the Philippine Embassy in Damascus, exerts effort to persuade Filipino nationals to leave the war-torn country.

The OWWA repatriation team were at the NAIA Terminal, extending airport assistance to the workers such as facilitation of immigration and customs formalities.

The OWWA is also offering temporary shelter at the OWWA Halfway Home in Pasay City and assisting workers on their travel back to their provinces.

Torres said a stress debriefing is also being conducted by the OWWA counseling team to reorient OFWs on reintegration options, including business entrepreneurship under the P2-billion OFW Reintegration Program.

He said that starter kits under the livelihood assistance program to start their own microenterprises is also being offered to OFWs.