The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Thursday clarified that the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded in Dubai had flown out just as tensions in the Middle East were escalating — during the period when travel restrictions were not yet in place.

Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said most of the stranded OFWs had departed the same weekend the conflict broke out, before its full impact on international travel was felt.

“There are three days being pointed to: Friday, when the attack happened; Saturday, when it still wasn’t widely known that the airspace was closed; and that particular weekend,” Cacdac said.

“Most, if not all, of the travel being referred to happened on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; those were the days when we hadn’t yet fully seen the impact on travel,” he added.

To date, 58 OFWs were stranded in Dubai. Of this number, 48 have returned to the Philippines.

Fifteen were originally bound for Jordan and 33 for Israel. The remaining 10 are still being assisted, with four expected to arrive home Thursday afternoon.

DMW Undersecretary for Licensing and Adjudication Services Bernard Olalia said the department met with recruitment agency associations, including representatives from Jordan, on Tuesday to explain the situation and suspend further deployments.

“We requested that they explain to the Jordanian employers that our workers cannot join them for now due to the prevailing airspace closures,” Olalia said.

Cacdac noted that all recruitment agencies hiring for the Middle East have been placed on red alert and advised to coordinate closely with employers and foreign counterparts in affected areas such as Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and Iran.

“We have heightened the requirement to mandatorily submit monitoring reports in deployment and enhanced welfare monitoring, and also to provide us with their updated — in the context of the current conflict — specified, specific contingency plans for their workers,” the DMW secretary said.