Stranded Filipino workers stage protest in Riyadh

RIYADH: A group of 20 undocumented Filipinos staged a silent protest on Saturday in front of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter.

“We are holding this silent protest to wake up the POLO to follow up our cases so that we can be repatriated to the Philippines and rejoin our families,” said Deo Oira, spokesman of the group.

The 20 men were representing 37 others who could not make it to the protest due to lack of cab fare. Thirty-six of these men were working for Afras and 21 were employed by Al-Nuzha. They managed to enter the Diplomatic Quarter with no documents except the copies of the subpoenas issued by the Saudi Ministry of Labor to their respective companies. Some of them already have plane tickets but are barred from leaving the country because they don’t have exit visas from their respective companies that they claim are demanding money to facilitate their departures.

Labor Attaché Albert Valenciano said POLO had done its part in solving their cases. “Their complaints have been filed with the Saudi Labor Office. We’ve also sent their complaints to the POEA (the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) in Manila for further action. The POEA is supposed to force the agencies in Manila, which are Aiziz and Al Haram, to force Afras to solve its employees’ labor problem,” he said. Valenciano said that Afras was demanding  SR3,000 from each worker for their repatriation. A hearing on the case is scheduled in Riyadh on Feb. 22.

“Eventually, the amount could be much less or much more,” said Assistant Labor Attaché Walfredo D. Villazor, who had been involved in the negotiations.

Al-Nuzha, on the other hand, is reportedly demanding SR6,000 per worker. “A hearing on the case is scheduled in Manila on Thursday, with the OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) being represented by their respective families,” Villazor said.

However, the OFWs who were protesting on Sunday said they could not raise the amount being asked by their respective employers  because they are jobless. They said they ran away from their employers due to various contract violations.

Ignacio Malayam, who left the company accommodation of Afras with 22 others on April 17, 2010, said that he was ordered to be a street sweeper in Al-Kharj instead of a member of a service crew. “I was receiving only SR600 instead of the SR1,000 in the contract which I signed. Moreover, my contract stated that I would be working as janitor in the malls and hospitals of Makkah and  Madinah but I was assigned instead  in Al-Kharj in Riyadh as a street sweeper,” he said.

Alzap Alihuddin added that he signed a contract to work as computer programmer with a salary of SR2,000 but he was assigned to the customer service section with a salary of SR1,900.

Deo Oira, who ran away from Al-Nuzha in July 2010 along with 35 others, said that he was working as a mason who was supposed to receive SR1,300 monthly salary but he was not receiving this on time.

The Philippines mandates that OFWs working abroad should earn a minimum wage of $400 a month (SR1,501). IN order to gain exit clearance to work abroad, OFWs must sign contracts with this minimum wage. But under a process called contact substitution, new work contracts are drawn up after they arrive. OFWs often find their wages end up being less. By the time they learn of the scam, they are already in-country and being assigned work with their passports in the possession of sponsors.

“The company was giving only a small portion of my monthly salary so I could not send money to my family in the Philippines,” said Oira.

At present, all of the OFWs have no place to stay in.

“We stay with friends and others who understand our situation. We also live off them. If we manage to get a job, we stay at the job site,” the OFWs said, some of them with tears in their eyes. –RODOLFO C. ESTIMO JR. | ARAB NEWS