OWWA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac (File photo)
MANILA – Around 38 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are currently headed outside of Ukraine as tensions continue to grip the eastern European nation, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said on Friday.
“Now there are around 38 OFWs en route to the western border of Ukraine bordering Poland because this is the part where there is no military build-up of Russian forces. So from there, they will be taken to a town before crossing the border to Poland," OWWA chief Hans Leo Cacdac said in a radio interview.
Cacdac said Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. announced that the Polish government has agreed to allow OFWs to enter.
He said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has also issued a directive to coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and embassies in Warsaw, Poland among others.
Cacdac added that other Filipinos in Kyiv also need assistance.
“There are about 40 people who still need help but we have been assured that there will be transport from Kyiv to bring our OFWs to safer grounds on the west of border on the Poland side,” he said.
Asked if the honorary consul in Kyiv is still working, Cacdac added, “As far as we know, yes”.
At least 137 people have so far been killed after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military operations in Ukraine which started on Thursday. (PNA)
