Over 200 Filipinos in Kazakhstan to go home--labor official
By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net
Last updated 04:13pm (Mla time) 11/03/2006
A TOTAL of 231 of the 652 overseas Filipino workers in Kazakhstan have decided to go home, and flight arrangements for 11 of them have been made, a Philippine labor official based in Riyadh said Friday.
Rustico Dela Fuente, labor attaché, who was sent to Kazakhstan to monitor the developments there following the October 20 riot between Kazakh and Turkish workers at the oil drilling and exploration project, said 11 had left Tengiz for Atyrau on November 2.
Dela Fuente said that from Atyrau in Kazakhstan, flight arrangements would be made for the 11 Filipino workers to return to Manila. He identified them as: Jimmy Fajardo, Adriano Teodolfo, Lauro Aritmetico, Ricardo Ramos, Mark Lagroma, Edwin Quinto, J. Lauren Serano, Julieto Agno, Oneal Landicho, Guillermo Villacarlos, and Berlito Serut.
Esteban Conejos, Foreign Affairs undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, said the flight to and from Kazakhstan was only every Friday.
The repatriation is at the cost of Bechtel, which manages the oil drilling project in Kazakhstan.
Philippine Ambassador to Pakistan Jaime Yambao said he met with representatives of the Kazakh government and Bechtel on the security plan to enable Filipino workers to continue working safely in Tengiz.
The Filipino workers have not returned to work while the security plan is being set up