The Department of Labor and Employment reiterated its appeal to overstaying and undocumented overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia to avail of the Saudi government’s amnesty program which was extended for another 30 days.
Migrante International has estimated that there are at least 12,000 undocumented OFWs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but the Labor department claimed that only around 6,000 Filipino workers availed of the amnesty program.
Labor Undersecretary Dominador Say said 600 stranded and undocumented OFWs in the Arab country will be repatriated by the government in the coming weeks.
“We continue our efforts in processing the travel documents of our stranded OFWs in Saudi. We urge them to take advantage of the amnesty extension and immediately avail of the amnesty grant and the government will take care of the repatriation process,” Say said.
The Labor official said another 400 OFWs in Saudi have registered to avail of the program. Say encouraged the remaining stranded and undocumented OFWs in Saudi to take advantage of the amnesty extension because Saudi authorities will immediately start their crackdown as soon as the amnesty program ends.
“Some OFWs choose to stay, stressing that they could still work for at least a month and save money before going back home. Others are not eligible for the amnesty, such as those with absconding cases, and other violations. For those eligible OFWs, we urge them to register and let the government bring them back home,” Say added.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III had also sent an augmentation team in Saudi to accommodate more registrants of the amnesty. The team left on July 11 and will help expedite the processing of documents of the OFWs.
The Saudi government has recently ended the implementation of its 90-day amnesty program for undocumented foreign nationals dubbed “A nation without violators” on June 25, 2017.
In order to give more chances for illegal and overstaying foreign workers, the Saudi government has extended the amnesty program for 30 days which will end on July 24, 2017.
