Slide show: OFWs in Syria flee strife but also well-paying jobs

“I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again…”   Their journey was like a song, but mixed with the heartbreak of the original was fear and anxiety.   The charter flight from Syria to Manila last September 11 was full of OFWs, mostly women domestic helpers, who had little time to prepare for their return to the Philippines. All of them had been housed at the Filipino Workers Resource Center in Damascus after using various means to leave their Syrian employers so that they could be repatriated back to the Philippines. Since the majority of them left the Philippines through nefarious or underground means, the Department of Justice and other agencies had to conduct a debriefing session with the new arrivals at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration office in Pasay City.   They needed to establish who facilitated their travel with fake documents through the high seas of Tawi-Tawi. The new process of debriefing is part of a campaign against human trafficking of vulnerable Filipino workers.   But the probing questions only added to the tension that did not abate for most of the OFWs since they fled their employers’ homes. Some broke contracts in order to leave; many had not received their full salaries and thus did not have much money upon their arrival.   Most were just eager to be reunited with loved ones. - GMA News