22 January 2014 – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), through the Philippine Consulate General repatriated more than 4,167 Filipinos from Jeddah and spent close to Php 70.6 million in assisting distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in 2013, a year best defined as a crisis period due to the mass repatriation and the rush in legalization of work status in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia.

More than 2,000 of the repatriates were women, the majority being household helpers who ran away from their employers. Close to  900 were undocumented Filipino children. The list did not include those who exited the Kingdom without informing the Consulate.

The DFA shouldered the airline tickets of 2,997 of the repatriates at the cost of Php 56 million. Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the host government provided 194 and 976 tickets, respectively. Exit visas are processed and issued by the Saudi government through the facilitation of the Consulate and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office.

The repatriated Filipinos are among the more than 28,000 who rushed to the Consulate from April to December to seek assistance in either their repatriation or the transfer to legal sponsors. Early in the year the Kingdom intensified its Saudization campaign by cracking down on  illegal workers which led  1,500 displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to set up a “tent city” outside the Consulate. In May the Saudi government declared a grace period for the correction of legal status which extended until November. At year end, most of the Filipinos have successfully legalized their work status or have been repatriated.

There remain about 500 Filipinos waiting for the go signal of Saudi authorities for the processing of their exit visas. The Consulate maintains two shelters in Jeddah--the OWWA safehouse with 62 OFWs with labor or police cases filed against their employers and at Bawadi district with 82 who are awaiting exit visas. At the height of the crisis, the Consulate took in close to 450 distressed Filipinos. In 2013 DFA spent almost Php 10.8 million in providing accommodation, food, children’s formula and basic necessities for them.

The DFA also provided medical assistance to 64 Filipinos who set up camp in the “tent city.” More than half of the cases were birth deliveries and the rest were cancer, stroke or diabetes patients. It successfully negotiated the waiving from 50% to as much as 100% of several of the hospital bills, lowering to almost 1.8 million pesos the total assistance paid by DFA.

Likewise, the DFA assisted 369 OFWs in Jeddah prisons with 239 OFWs having been released and repatriated. Drugs and liquor remain the major causes of detention. Other 41 OFWs were assisted at police stations for various cases such as theft, physical abuse, rape or fake documents.

In the same year the Consulate assisted in the shipment or burial of 242 deceased Filipinos – 150 were shipped while 62 were buried in the Kingdom. The DFA spent Php 2 million in the shipment of the remains of 15 undocumented OFWs. The DFA also facilitated the release of more than 19.2 million pesos worth of death claims to the families of 43 OFWs. END