Repatriate OFWs now
Why is the Philippine government dilly-dallying on the repatriation of the 400 stranded overseas Filipino workers housed in a shelter in Al-Mina hajj terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia?
I have been told by the stranded OFWs that there are 400 of them inside the shelter. Two hundred of them just returned to the shelter after a three-week-long camp-out near the Philippine Consulate that they held to ask for their immediate repatriation.
The OFWs’ stay in Al-Mina hajj shelter is not for free. The Philippine Consulate is paying 15 Saudi rials daily for every OFW housed there, as noted by no less than Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is also the presidential adviser on OFW concerns. Binay has asked Malacañang to allocate P24 million for the repatriation of the stranded OFWs in Saudi.
Assuming on the average that there are 300 OFWs housed at the shelter from January to May (approximately 150 days), at the rate of 15 Saudi rials per day for every OFW, this would mean that the Philippine government already spent for the shelter’s rental about 675,000 Saudi rials, the equivalent of P7.76 million (at a rial-to-peso conversion rate of 1:11.5). This is a huge amount—an amount that could have been better spent bankrolling OFW welfare programs and services, had the repatriation of the stranded OFWs been promptly done.
The Philippine diplomatic post in Jeddah could have fast-tracked the repatriation of the OFWs, considering that, as told to us weeks ago, their travel documents were ready. In fact, the stranded OFWs were told that their plane tickets were about to be released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and that they’d be home in a week’s time. But this never happened. They were instead promised, again, a new repatriation date: June 6.
The 57 OFWs repatriated last month had stayed in the deportation center for some time while waiting for their plane tickets.
The bottom line is this: in repatriating OFWs, further delays can be avoided. We understand the host government’s immigration policies and procedures, but in the case of the 400 stranded OFWs who have ready travel documents, those policies and procedures can no longer justify the delays.
The prompt repatriation of stranded OFWs will not only bring relief to their families, it will also save the government huge amounts of money that, to repeat, could be spent for services and welfare programs for OFWs and their dependents, rather than for the rent of the Al-Mina hajj shelter. The concerned government agencies and officials should realize this. Or are they ignoring this fact for a pocketful of other reasons?
—JOHN LEONARD MONTERONA,
regional coordinator,
Migrante-Middle East,
[email protected]
