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6 OFWs still stranded in Saudi

BAGUIO CITY (Apr. 12) — Six of the 19 Cordillerans in the original group of 38 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are still stranded in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after almost four months since the mass walk-out of 38 OFWs to protest their employer’s non-compliance to their rights as OFWs and their subsequent demand for repatriation.

In earlier Nordis reports; the said OFWs were unlawfully held by their employer Annasban Recruitment Contractors, in a Villa after they stopped working en-masse to protest unjust labor practices against them last January. Annasban held and refused to release them for repatriation if they would not pay the company for the days these OFWs refused to work and for the remaining number of days stipulated in their overseas contract.

As described in a press conference held at the Cordillera Women’s Education and Resource Center (CWERC), Daisy Polano, one of the said OFWs, who was safely repatriated to the country, said they were forcefully detained and maltreated in the Villa. It was only when their plight was brought to the media and the local officials here that they were allowed some furnishings in their detention area.

“Still we only eat one pack of noodles that is so watered down to make it enough to go around. We sat on the floor.” she said in Filipino.

As of press time, Flora Belinan of Migrante – Metro-Baguio, said reports from Riyadh this week say “that the OFWs are still restricted from leaving the Villa and still eat a pack of watered-down noodles a day.

Belinan said Migrante in Riyadh also reported that the Placewell recruitment company has agreed to pay for the repatriation of the last six Cordillera OFWs and, “counting from April 12, they are expected to be home in two weeks.”

Their travel and the negotiations for their release is being facilitated by Migrante in Riyadh and Philippine Vice-Consul Jun Isarel and Labor Attaché Samuel Dodong Roldan.

Moreover, Belinan, discussed their request to the Philippine government to continue investigating Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Riyadh regarding the approval of Annasban’s re-operation in the country despite their earlier suspension last year.

Migrante-MB also calls on the Philippine government to ask the Saudi government to scrap-off this so-called unified contact. This contract is a major reason, especially in Saudi Arabia, why OFWs are forced to quit or escape from their jobs and are placed in grave disadvantage. This unfair contract is only brought to the workers when they are already out of the country and already have no choice.

The unified contract legalized slavery of Filipino workers instead of protecting the OFW from unscrupolus employers Belinan stressed.

The Migrante-MB also criticized the creation of an OFW bank by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo using OFW funds. She said that the funds should be used for the security, like this repatriation, of OFWs instead. # Reymund Valentin/MMSU Intern for NORDIS

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