Mylah Tabil, 29, an OFW from Cotabato who returned on Thursday, said she and other OFWs who attended war drills or safety orientations realised they don't have access to gas masks, giving them the impression that there are very few gas masks for everyone in Kuwait.
"As an alternative, we were told to put wet towels on our faces," said Tabil, adding that this kind of instruction was given to her and her friends during war drills which they undertook with their employers.
"The first instruction given to us was to consider a siren as an early warning device," explained Tabil. "Once we hear that, the advice was for us to run to the nearest basement anywhere in the area," noted Tabil.
"The Philippine embassy has its own bunker," Tabil said, adding that the presence of this infrastructure has given many OFWs a sense of protection.
However, not all places have bunkers or basements, which means there will be a shortage of safe places in case there is a full-blown war in Iraq.
Several months ago, the Kuwait government divided the city into sections to guide those who are giving and are undergoing safety orientations. "The nationals, including their housemaids, always undergo war drills," Tabil said.
Kuwait is only 100 km from Iraq. If there is war, Kuwait would be greatly affected, Tabil assessed.
On Thursday, Tabil and 35 other OFWs arrived at the international airport, which has been flooded recently by those escaping the Middle East tension.
The Kuwaiti government paid for Tabil's ticket. The subsidy was a result of the recent meeting between Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and the Emir of Kuwait.
Tabil belonged to the third batch of an estimated 218 OFWs who were scheduled to return to Manila from Kuwait.
The returning OFWs included other women who had escaped from their employers and had been waiting for the processing of their travel papers on the premises of the Philippine embassy.
When asked if she would still go home if her working conditions improved, Tabil said: "The only thing I am thinking of now is to be in a safer place and there is no safer place than home."
Tabil remained at the sleeping quarters of the office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Makati City before leaving for her hometown in southern Philippines.
Gulf News 2003
