The Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People of the Philippine bishops’ conference called on Filipinos to welcome, and not discriminate, returning migrant workers.
“Let them come home,” said Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga, vice chairman of the commission.
“What they are asking is just our acceptance, not discrimination as COVID-19 suspects,” he said, adding that the returning workers displaced by the pandemic are “our own Filipinos.”
“We are hospitable people, should we not be more hospitable to them? So let us welcome them wherever their home is in the province, city or town here in our country,” said Bishop Santos.
“When our world is healthy they were there for us working on land and on seas. When there were times of financial crisis, their remittances made our economy afloat,” said the prelate.
“Now when we are in the same shoes, struggling and even stumbling, we have to extend helping hands to them,” he said.
Returning migrant workers are required to undergo a 14-day quarantine. There were reports, however, that some have been refused entry into their hometowns for fear of the disease.
