350,000 OFWs in Saudi Arabia may lose jobs

About 350,000 overseas Filipino workers OFWs) in Saudi Arabia are on the verge of losing their jobs after the oil-rich kingdom announced a six-year work permit cap to facilitate the employment of its own citizens, an alliance of migrant workers said on Tuesday.

In a statement, John Leonard Monterona, Migrante – Middle East regional coordinator, said that “thousands” of Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia will possibly lose their jobs after the new labor employment scheme is put into place.

The Saudi Arabian government announced on Monday that it will not renew the work permits of foreign workers who have spent six years in the country.

This was to address the kingdom’s new labor scheme—called Saudization—that hopes to employ its own citizens over expatriate workers.

“If implemented, this will affect thousands of OFWs who have been staying in Saudi Arabia for more than six years,” Monterona said, adding that about 60 percent of the 1.2 million OFWs in Saudi Arabia were rehires.

Of the 60 percent rehires, 40 percent have been working for more than six years there.

The new labor scheme states that locally-owned or foreign firms’ work force must consist at least 10 percent Saudi Arabians.

Monterona said that the scheme “is the right decision or action a government could do if it faces high rate of unemployment among its own citizens.”

“Employ their own people first before expatriate workers including
OFWs,” the Migrante coordinator said.

Several host countries—Japan and South Korea—for Filipino workers have also implemented a work permit limit.

Saudi Arabia will be the first country in the Middle East to implement a limit on the stay of foreign workers, Monterona said.

There are about 10 million expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia employed in various trades such as construction, telecommunications, health, service and domestic work.

Majority of the migrant workers were from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Monterona said that the Aquino administration should develop the local economy by implementing genuine agrarian reform program and nationalization of basic industries.

It should also shun away from transnational and multinational companies, he added.

“As we have been saying, the lucrative labor export business of the government will eventually lead to bankruptcy as countries in the Middle East hosting millions of OFWs are now facing unemployment problem too—problem that is serious enough that provide impetus to the so-called Arab Spring,” Monterona said. –Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, Reporter, Manila Times