OWWA Reactivates Response and Monitoring Team for Yemen Crisis
Due to the worsening security situation in Yemen, the Overseas Worker’s Welfare Administration (OWWA) has reactivated its Crisis Monitoring and Response Team (CMRT) to assist Filipinos there in evacuating the place.
The CMRT personnel will monitor the status of evacuees in holding areas and orient repatriated workers on the services offered by the government, said OWWA chief Rebecca Calzado in a statement Friday.
A total of 342 Filipinos received assistance in form of temporary shelter, transport services, and fares for their travel back to their respective provinces, Calzado said.
Calzado described the CMRT as a special committee “that is reactivated in times of political unrest in countries where there are affected Filipino migrant workers.”
She said the CMRT’s reactivation aims to closely-monitor the status of evacuees, border-crossers and Filipinos staying at holding areas, and to coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Philippine Missions in the repatriation of affected OFWs in the area.
Yemen was put under Crisis Alert Level 4 in February, requiring Filipinos to leave the country due to “deteriorating political and security situation” there.
Recent reports from Yemen indicated that Houthi fighters and allied army units had clashed with local militias in the southern city of Aden on Sunday, and eyewitnesses said gun battles and heavy shelling ripped through a downtown district near the city’s port.
The Houthi forces have been battling to take Aden, a last foothold of fighters loyal to Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, advancing to the city center despite 11 days of air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition of mainly Gulf air forces.
Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia launched the air strikes on March 26 in an attempt to turn back the Iran-allied Shi’ite Houthis, who already control Yemen’s capital Sanaa, and restore some of Hadi’s crumbling authority.
The air and sea campaign has targeted Houthi convoys, missiles and weapons stores and cut off any possible outside reinforcements – although the Houthis deny Saudi accusations that they are armed by Tehran.