Home 
MANILA, Philippines – There is no new immigration rule on the blacklisting of Filipino and other foreign workers who have been reported by their employers in Saudi Arabia to have run away, Vice President Noli de Castro said Monday.
This clarification was issued by De Castro in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer shortly after talking to Philippine Ambassador to Riyadh Antonio Villamor on the reported new policy to bar all runaways from re-entering Saudi Arabia.
“The ambassador said there was no new policy but the existing practice is those who run away from their employers for some reason and then go to other employers in the same country for work face deportation for being undocumented,” De Castro quoted Villamor as saying.
Last week, John Leonard, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, wrote Villamor and Philippine Consul to Jeddah Ezzedin Tago asking them to question the supposed new policy as it would mean deporting and blacklisting distress and runaway workers without the benefit of due process.
“The said new immigration rule is discriminatory and in violation of workers’ rights. It grossly disregarded the fact that many foreign workers, including our OFWs, ran away from their employers because the latter have been treating them like slaves and thus been abused, and subjected to other forms of maltreatment and labor malpractices,” Leonard said.
Leonard said that based on the records of cases of Migrante chapters in Saudi Arabia, there are 1,793 cases of OFWs requesting repatriation as of Dec. 31, 2008, of which 566 were runaways from their employers and 1,019 were in various distress situation.
Among the complaints given by runaways and abused workers were unpaid salaries and overtime work and unsafe living and working conditions. They have sought refuge in their friends and at the Philippine Embassy-run Bahay Kalinga and Welfare centers.
“We believe, running away from abusive employers is the only way out our distress OFWs have to save their lives and thus they should not be punished as they are the very victims here. Their rights and well being should be safe guarded and protected at all time,” Leonard said.
“Therefore, it should be erring and abusive employers that need to be blacklisted in hiring our workers, not the other way around,” he stressed.
But according to Villamor, abused foreign workers should first inform the Saudi police and the embassy about their condition for proper action and to avoid being deported. Those who do so have a better chance of re-entering the kingdom, he told De Castro.
