RIYADH: An organization of undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom have reminded President Rodrigo R. Duterte of his pledge to "help them get their proper status.”
Robert Argallon, president of the Riyadh-based Undocumented OFWs for Legalization and Amnesty (OFWULA), said that President Duterte made the pledge on May 31 this year, a month before he assumed the presidency.
“President Duterte said that he’d ask concerned Arab officials to be more circumspect at arriving at solutions especially for us because we are from a poor country,” he said.
He added: “We, the undocumented OFWs, reiterate our call to President Duterte to either help us correct our status or be repatriated.”
He also said that at present, there are 800 undocumented OFWs who are OFWULA members who have sought help from the Philippine Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh (POLO-Riyadh). He added that out of that number, there are 47 mothers with children. “Around 60 percent of the undocumented OFWs are women who were forced to run away from their employers due to malpractices and abuses,” he said.
He added that aside from the undocumented, there were at least 100 runaway female OFWs staying at the Bahay Kalinga (BK) under the supervision of POLO. Moreover, he added, there were 80 male OFWs staying at a villa rented by the Philippine Embassy at Exit 8.
The group expressed concern over the slow repatriation and the correction of the status of undocumented OFWs.
Citing figures from the Department of Labor and Employment, the group noted that as of Oct. 29, 2,191 undocumented OFWs had availed themselves of the government’s repatriation program.
Argallo said that his group was hoping that Duterte would soon visit Saudi Arabia so that he could personally hear undocumented OFWs’ plea for repatriation.