OFWs are ambassadors of the Philippines

Overseas Filipino Workers in Arab countries especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) must respect immigration and labor laws of their host countries, Vice President Jejomar Binay said Tuesday.

“Remember that you are our ambassadors as well, so your actions also reflect on our country,” Binay reminded OFWs as he repeated his call on Philippine Embassy officials in Saudi Arabia to speed up the processing of papers of undocumented workers who needed to be sent back home and to runaways who needed shelter and legal assistance.

Reports say there are about 80 OFWs camping outside of the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah.

Binay, who is also the Presidential Adviser on OFW concerns, made the appeal as the KSA government implements the April 6 three-month reprieve issued by King Abdullah for foreign workers who have problems with their papers.

The reprieve delays the arrests of foreign workers as well as gives them the opportunity to correct their documents.

Working under employers who are not original sponsors is a violation of immigration laws in the Kingdom.

“For workers affected by the Saudization policy, they need to be able to legally transfer from their original sponsors to their current employers. Workers who have long run away from their original sponsors and no longer have valid residency permits or passports meanwhile are in a different category altogether. Theirs is an immigration problem and no longer a labor one,” the Vice President said.

Saudi Arabia, one of the favorite destinations of Filipino workers, is now observing Nizaqat: a government drive to provide more jobs to Saudi nationals.

There is no amnesty for foreigners illegally staying in Saudi Arabia.

source:  Lyndon Plantilla/PIA Central Newsdesk

Illegal Workers Caught In Saudi Arabia

A Filipino migrant rights group within the Middle East has reported that 26 women and 6 males, all undocumented Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), have been apprehended last Tuesday night following raids carried out by a composite crew from Jawasat police and Mutawa, or cultural police, at numerous lodging of migrant staff in Tukbah, Al-Khobar.


The crackdown is according to the Saudi government's intensified marketing campaign towards overstaying and undocumented migrant workers.

With this development, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona appealed to Saudi authorities to respect the rights of undocumented migrants, together with OFWs, in the conduct of its intensified campaign to hunt "illegal" and undocumented migrants.

Monterona said Migrante, as a company advancing and defending the rights and welfare of migrant workers, is urging the Saudi government to consider granting a basic amnesty that might cowl illegal and undocumented migrant workers.

Last October, the Saudi government granted a Royal pardon however it was identified later that it applies solely to pilgrims and holder of go to visas that already lapsed.

The Royal pardon would finish on March 31 next year.

Migrante additionally known as the eye of the Philippine Embassy beneath the leadership of interim charges de affairs Ezzadin Tago to make the same enchantment to the Saudi government and properly signify these apprehended.

"We also call on President Benigno Aquino III, through the Office of Vice President Jejomar Binay and the Department of Foreign Affairs, to lobby to the host authorities the legalization of all undocumented OFWs, giving them the choice to be repatriated or to stay, and find job in the Kingdom," Monterona stated