MANILA – Thirty-two distressed overseas Filipino workers arrived in Manila from Kuwait on Friday.

The repatriates were personally assisted by Hans Cacdac, head of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), upon their arrival at the Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Before they were sent home, the workers stayed at a government shelter while waiting for their papers to be processed.

They ended up at the shelter after falling victims to human trafficking, maltreatment, or contract difference.

Repatriated workers without relatives to pick them up were loaded in a bus and brought to OWWA in Pasay City.

Just recently, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III went to Kuwait after OFW domestic worker Jakatia Pawa was executed. While there, he also looked into the plight of hundreds of distressed OFWs currently housed at a temporary shelter.

• READ: Bello eyes reshuffle of officers in Kuwait

Bello earlier said that he is seriously considering a moratorium or the temporary suspension on the deployment of household service workers to Kuwait in view of the rising number of distressed OFWS there.

- With a report from Jorge Cariño, ABS-CBN News