MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has given his government a week to process some 24,000 repatriated Filipino workers stuck for weeks on cruise ships or in coronavirus quarantine, so they can finally go home.
Thousands are aboard cruise vessels off Manila Bay or stuck in hotels and crowded health facilities, some growing frustrated having tested negative for the coronavirus and completed the mandated 14-day quarantine.
Overseas Filipino Workers, or OFWs, are breadwinners and a key support base of Duterte. Their more than $30 billion of annual remittances is a key driver of the Philippine economy, sustaining millions of family members.
“The president said they can use all government resources and whatever means of transportation — bus, airplane, ships — to bring the OFWs home,” Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said on Monday.
The government is braced for hundreds of thousands more workers to return due to job losses as the coronavirus devastates economies worldwide. It has blamed the delays on a testing bottleneck.
The cruise ship cluster off Manila Bay numbered 29 vessels on Monday, none with passengers aboard. They contain thousands of Filipino crew still awaiting coronavirus tests, many no longer receiving salaries and venting frustrations having already met conditions for release.
Crew reached by Reuters said information was scarce and prolonged isolation was taking a toll on their mental and emotional health.
Jex Bañega, a receptionist on Carnival Corp’s Pacific Explorer, said he was being well cared for, but after 35 days of quarantine, his cabin felt more like prison cell.
“We’re only thinking of going home to our families. The comfort of our homes is different,” Banega said
More than 30,000 overseas Filipinos have returned home and 515 of 27,000 tested for coronavirus were positive as of May 20, authorities said. The Philippines has over 14,000 cases, of which 868 were deaths.
Philippine President Duterte answers call of workers under COVID-19 quarantine eager to go home
https://arab.news/p575j
Philippine President Duterte answers call of workers under COVID-19 quarantine eager to go home
- Thousands are aboard cruise vessels off Manila Bay or stuck in hotels and crowded health facilities
- The government is braced for hundreds of thousands more workers to return due to job losses as the coronavirus devastates economies worldwide
Louvre workers vote to extend a strike
- Tensions have been further sharpened by fallout from the theft of crown jewels during a daylight robbery that exposed serious security lapses at the museum
PARIS: Employees at the Louvre Museum voted to extend a strike that has disrupted operations at the world’s most visited museum, though the attraction partially opened Wednesday to allow visitors to enjoy the “Mona Lisa” and other highlights.
The museum said that visitors have started entering the building, where they had access to a limited “masterpiece route” which includes Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and the famous Venus de Milo.
“Due to a strike, some rooms in the Louvre Museum are ... closed,” it said on social media. “We apologize for any inconvenience.”
Union workers are protesting chronic understaffing, building deterioration and recent management decisions — pressures intensified by a brazen crown jewels heist in October.
The decision came during a morning general assembly, after workers had adopted the walkout unanimously earlier this week. The museum was shuttered Tuesday for its weekly closed day.
Tensions have been further sharpened by fallout from the theft of crown jewels during a daylight robbery that exposed serious security lapses at the museum.
Culture Ministry officials held crisis talks with unions Monday and proposed to cancel a planned $6.7 million cut in 2026 funding, open new recruitment for gallery guards and visitor services and increase staff compensation. Union officials said the measures fell short.
Louvre President Laurence des Cars appeared before the Senate’s culture committee later on Wednesday as lawmakers continue probing security failures at the museum.
