On-site assistance is another key feature of Philippine migration
policy. Apart from the Philippine embassies and consulates that protect
Filipino nationals, some 27 Philippine Overseas Labor Offices staffed by
labor attachés and welfare officers support the Philippine Foreign Service
through legal and social services. Contingency planning is embedded in the
program, identifying resources, coordination centers and exit strategies in
the event of a catastrophe or a civil disturbance. The OWWA is capable of
supporting a large-scale repatriation of Filipino workers in the Middle East. In
the past, the Philippine government has closely coordinated with the
International Organization for Migration and other world relief agencies for
the evacuation of OFWs, such as those trapped in the previous Gulf wars
and the Lebanon crisis in 2006.
The government has established a National Reintegration Center
under the Department of Labor to deliver on-site service and, on the workers’
return, to help them learn new skills, or join cooperatives and increase
savings, get retraining or skills upgrading, develop and launch a business,
receive counseling, and technical assistance that includes credit and
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microfinance. With the boom in tourism and business process outsourcing,
returning migrant workers are retrained to employ them in these markets.