Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello disclosed that some 60,000 overseas Filipino workers or OFWs have opted not to proceed with their repatriation following the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in their respective workplaces.

Bello said in a media briefing last week that OFWs will be given the COVID-19 vaccine in the Middle East.

“About 500,000 na humiling ng repatriation, may umatras na mga 60,000 and they gave us their reason na umatras na sila, hindi na sila nagpapa-repatriate dahil nabakunahan sila,” the labor chief said.

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Most of the OFWs who are also working as frontliners were also vaccinated.

The Philippines has yet to start its vaccination program and OFWs will be on the 10th priority inline in the government’s list.

Lawmakers at the House of Representatives want OFWs to be prioritized in the government’s vaccination program.

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“We want to come up with strong recommendation because if you will notice many countries are taking about adopting COVID 19 vaccine passport pag mag adopt na sila they will require all migrants to have that COVID-19 vaccine passport so kawawa ang ating mga OFW kung hindi ito ma prioritize,” Marino party-list representative Macnell Lusotan.

So far, the government has repatriated over 350,000 OFWs back in the country since the start of the pandemic last year.