MANILA — The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) expects repatriation of more Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) since the latter’s extended amnesty program will end on July 24, 2017.
With this, DoLE Undersecretary Dominador Say urged the remaining stranded and undocumented OFWs to take advantage of the amnesty extension as the Saudi authorities will start their crackdown immediately after the program’s conclusion.
“Some OFWs choose to stay, stressing that they could still work for at least a month and save money before going back home. Others are not eligible for the amnesty, such as those with absconding cases, and other violations. For those eligible OFWs, we urge them to register and let the government bring them back home,” he said in a statement.
Say added that hundreds of OFWs in the Arab country will be repatriated by the government in the coming weeks.
“We continue our efforts in processing the travel documents of our stranded OFWs in Saudi. We urge them to take advantage of the amnesty extension and immediately avail of the amnesty grant and the government will take care of the repatriation process,” the DOLE official said.
At the same time, Say reported that DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III had also sent an augmentation team in the host country to accommodate more registrants.
The team left last July 11 to help expedite the processing of documents of the Filipinos working there.
The Saudi government recently concluded the implementation of its 90-day amnesty program for undocumented foreign nationals dubbed “A nation without violators” on June 25, 2017.
But, the host country decided to extend it for another month or until July 24. Ferdinand Patinio/PNA-northboundasia.com