13 June 2014- The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh successfully held its 20th consular outreach mission or “Embassy on Wheels” (EOW) in 2014 at the Al Jazeera International School in Dammam in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia from June 6 to 7.

The five-member team, which was headed by Consul Mary Jennifer D. Dingal was able to process 536 passport applications, 305 notarial services, 23 birth registrations, 59 passport extensions, two travel documents and released 1,109 new passports.

The team was augmented by volunteers from the Filipino community in Al Khobar, Damman and other nearby areas. 

Consul Dingal expressed the Embassy’s appreciation to the community volunteers for their support, assistance and cooperation during the two-day activity.

Al Khobar is at least four hours away by land from Riyadh. It is centrally located and can be easily accessed by overseas Filipino workers in the Eastern Region. It is connected with the major highways in the region including Dhahran-Jubail Highway, Dhahran-Dammam Highway as well as Al Khobar-Dammam Highway, which links Al Khobar with Dammam directly and links them both to Dammam Airport. Al Khobar also hosts the King Fahd Causeway, which links Saudi Arabia with Bahrain.

Based on the Saudi Ministry of Interior’s survey in 2012, Al Khobar hosts the second largest number of OFWs in the Eastern Region with 25,000 OFWs, after Dammam (30,000) and along with Jubail (25,000) and Thoqbah (25,000). Dhahran has 15,000 Filipinos while Hofuf and Mubarraz have 10,000 OFWs.  The rest of the OFWs are scattered throughout the other cities/municipalities in the Eastern Region.

As part of the Embassy’s program to improve customer service, the team conducted a client feedback survey to 600 clients, of which 220 responded as follows:
 

                                                                                                    Table 1. CLIENT FEEDBACK ON EOW AL KHOBAR, 6-7 June 2014. END