SENATOR Mark Villar filed a measure that will institutionalize assistance to families left behind by migrant workers.

Senate Bill 1527 or the proposed Left-Behind Household of Migrant Workers Act mandates the establishment of Migrant Workers Family Centers nationwide that will provide welfare assistance and counselling services to the families of migrant workers.

Villar said that the healthy development of the children is affected when they are left behind by either their father or mother, or worse, both.

The senator added that some children develop physical and mental health problems when separated from their parents at an early age.

“Although migrant workers fulfill the basic needs of the family especially food and financial security, the psychological needs of belongingness and intimacy were fully challenged because of physical separation” Villar said in his explanatory note.

The family centers will help family members sustain harmony in their relationships and prepare them for future reintegration with the migrant worker.

They will also serve as links of left-behind households to various services and/or agencies of the government on overseas employment.

Under the measure, the Department of Migrant Workers shall head the program and establish the family centers that will be strategically located in every city or municipality where there is a large population of families who have relatives working abroad.