7K undocumented OFWs fail to beat amnesty deadline — DFA

Nearly 7,000 undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia failed to beat the Saudi government’s deadline to voluntarily leave the country.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said these overstaying OFWs will not be jailed but will be “individually repatriated” once they have paid their debts.

Since the 90-day amnesty was offered last March 29, a total of 5,122 undocumented OFWs have been repatriated.

The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh reported to the DFA that the registration for the amnesty program has ceased and the Saudi government has not announced any extension of the amnesty program for undocumented migrants.

“We have 5,122 that have gone home and some 12,000 registered Filipinos. This means there is a balance of 6,000 plus Filipinos who are still awaiting” repatriation, said Raul Dado, acting executive director of the DFA office of the undersecretary for migrant workers affairs.

“OFWs who cannot be given exit visas because they have commercial and private debts are advised by the Philippine government to fulfill their obligation,” Dado said.

“They will not be jailed but the Philippine government has a standard operation on repatriating Filipinos individually based on certain criteria, like settling all debts before they can leave the country. So it will follow individual instead of mass repatriation,” he went on.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello earlier said most of the undocumented OFWs were victims of maltreatment and illegal recruiters. He said some were forced to flee their employers and sought refuge in Philippine labor offices in Saudi Arabia.