February 19, 2022
AN ORGANIZATION of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) on Saturday, February 19, 2022, scored the continued imposition of a deployment ban to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), saying it will not solve the perennial problem of injustice there.
Migrante International said in a statement that it disagrees with the deployment ban for Saudi-bound household service workers (HSWs) and construction workers as a way to force the host country to adhere to the demands of the Philippines.
“The Duterte administration had almost five years to act, five years to explore other strategies to ensure the rights of all our Saudi OFWs to their wages and benefits are respected,” said Migrante.
“Implementing a deployment ban is not the solution. It seems to be the only weapon used by the Philippine government in cases of grave rights violations of our OFWs, but it remains ineffective,” it added.
Thousands of OFWs were repatriated from Saudi Arabia between January 2016 to December 2019 amid the economic downturn there.
The KSA government has yet to pay the P4.6 billion worth of unpaid wages and benefits to the 9,000 repatriated OFWs despite previous commitments.
DOLE had also ordered all Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (Polos) in Saudi Arabia to temporarily suspend the verification of newly hired domestic workers.
The temporary suspension was prompted by reports of labor abuse involving a retired general in KSA, identified as Ayed Thawah Al Jealid, and his Filipino HSWs.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III already said he wants the back wages and unpaid benefits of the repatriated OFWs to be settled prior to lifing the ban.
Bello also said they are looking to issue a new set of guidelines on the deployment of HSWs before lifting the suspension.
Migrantt said this is due to their inability to be deployed to Saudi Arabia.
“The deployment ban places at risk the livelihood and survival of our kababayans, who were supposed to start their work contracts in Saudi but are now stranded in the Philippines until the ban is lifted,” it said.
“Without a plan in place to provide financial aid for these affected would-be OFWs, the Duterte government only causes more sufferring to our kababayans,” added Migrante.