SAUDI ASKED ‘Don’t blacklist runaway migrant workers’

MANILA, Philippines—The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should revoke its new immigration policy that blacklists foreign workers who run away from their usually abusive employers, an alliance of overseas Filipino workers’ organizations in the Middle East said Thursday.

The new policy is discriminatory and a violation of migrant workers’ rights as embodied in the United Nations Convention in the Protection of Migrants and Members of their Families, Migrante-Middle East said in an e-mail sent to media outfits.

The new policy allows the summary deportation of runaway migrant workers without the benefit of due process. Once blacklisted, they would be barred from entering the kingdom to work, said John Monterona, regional coordinator of the organization.

“It grossly disregards the fact that many foreign workers including our overseas Filipino workers run away from their employers because they are usually treated like slaves, abused and subjected to all forms of maltreatment and labor malpractices,” he said.

The group, Monterona said, has already called the attention of the Philippine embassy on the issue. He said a letter has been sent to Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Antonio Villamor and Consul Ezzadin Tago, urging them to make proper representation on the issue and suggesting instead that cases of runaways be reviewed on a case by case basis.

The regional organization receives complaints and calls for help from OFWs from all over Saudi Arabia, and has on its record as of December 31, 2008, a total of 1,793 OFWs seeking repatriation. Of the number, 566 were runaways and 1,019 were in various distress situations, he said.

These OFWs, usually domestic helpers or construction workers, were forced to run away from their abusive employers because they were not properly paid, they lived and worked in unsafe environments, they worked more than eight hours but were not paid overtime. Some have sought refuge with friends while some at the Philippine embassy-run Bahay Kalinga and welfare centers, Monterona said.

“We believe running away from abusive employers is the only way out our distress OFWs have to save their lives. Thus they should not be punished as they are the victims here. Such is the case of an OFW rape victim recently rescued by POLO (Philippine Overseas Labor Office) in Al Khobar who was in fact contemplating to run away,” he added.–Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net