Over 400 Filipinos living and working in Haiti, Central America are “safe and generally fine” six months after the country was rocked by a massive earthquake, the Philippine Embassy in Cuba reported on Saturday.

The report, relayed to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila, was made by an Embassy team headed by Philippine Ambassador MacArthur Corsino during a follow-up mission to the areas of Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo in the Caribbean nation.

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti last Jan. 12, killing at least 300,000 people.

Accompanied by Philippine Honorary Consul Fitzgerald Brandt, Filipino Community President Francisco Bagadiong and Vice Consul Jason Anasarias, Corsino inspected several dwelling compounds of overseas Filipino workers.

Despite the fact that there are 1.2-million homeless Haitians in tents aming poor sanitation and lack of water, electricity and proper toilet facilities, and with evidence of unrepaired and unreconstructed devastation in various parts of Port-au-Prince, the security situation has improved, and the 250-strong Filipino community there is relatively living well, the Embassy team said.

Around 160 members of the Philippine Army contingent, headed by Col. Clifford Cyril Riveral and the police unit in the area are now also housed in new and safer quarters and performing their duties in satisfactory conditions.

Whereas they had slept in makeshift tents before, Filipinos have returned to sleeping in their houses, albeit, nearer doors for fear of any possible aftershocks. They also have more food supplies as various supermarkets have reopened. Some of those repatriated to Manila have even returned and are back at their previous jobs or in related employment.

It was recalled that at the height of the Haiti earthquake crisis, when the stench of cadavers abounded and the peace and order situation was tense, an RP Rescue-Recovery-Repatriation Task Force, headed by the ambassador, succeeded in repatriating 63 Filipinos from Port-au-Prince, through the Dominican Republic.

Practically all Filipinos who had stayed behind are once again gainfully employed, mostly in supermarkets, warehouses, and textile garments firms and a number of work in well-paying jobs with the UN and other international organizations.

Meanwhile, Corsino, through the same report, warned Filipinos against promises of high-paying jobs in Haiti by apparently illegal recruiters.

He said at least two Filipinos — reportedly enticed by $3,000-month jobs — arrived recently in Haiti but have ended up jobless and penniless in Port-au-Prince, and are desperately depending on largesse from other Filipinos to survive.