At least 3,000 distressed overseas Filipino workers were granted exit visas under the amnesty program offered by Saudi Arabia to all illegal foreign workers in that country, the Department of Labor and Employment said.
In a statement, the department said almost half of the OFWs have left the Kingdom while the remaining will be repatriated in the coming months.
Philippine consul to KSA Rj Sumague said that at least 2,984 undocumented OFWs and their dependents have already received their exit visas, and 1,300 already left for home.
Sumague said the government has shouldered the air tickets of some 1,000 of those who left Saudi Arabia.
The Philippine government was able to send home 530 undocumented Filipinos in three flights from May 23, 24 and 29.
Sumague said he felt saddened that some Filipinos did not show up for their flights.
“It saddened me because we issued a total of 550 tickets in three flights but only 530 went home,” he said.
“We have some of our “kababayans” stopped at the immigration because some problems appeared on their records such as a police case while around 15 of them did not show up on their flight schedule,” Sumague added.
As of May 29, Sumague said the number of undocumented Filipinos who applied for amnesty were 5, 870 and 4,548 of them were already endorsed to the deportation center.
Under the amnesty program, the Saudi Arabia government gives residency and labor law violators 90 days to leave the country without penalties.
Sumague appealed anew to those who have not yet applied for the amnesty to do it while there is still time as the amnesty will expire on the last day of June.
Government estimates show undocumented Filipinos in Saudi Arabia could be as many as 60,000.
