Clear up remittance cap issue with Saudis, gov’t urged

MANILA, Philippines—A migrants rights group has  urged the Philippine government to seek clarification from Saudi Arabia regarding a statement made by the kingdom’s labor minister that a cap would be placed on remittances sent home by foreign workers.

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona over the weekend urged Manila to act after Saudi Labor Minister Adel Fakieh told the news website Al-Arabiya that the Saudi government was implementing a “salary protection program,” under which expatriate workers could send home only a prescribed amount of their salaries.

“The salary protection program which the host government announced is a mechanism of control on the outflow of remittances (and) may violate the expatriate workers’ rights on how to manage the fruits of their labor,” Monterona said.

“If this will be implemented by the host government, it is but proper for the sending governments, including the Philippines, to seek clarification on how it will be implemented as it will surely affect our fellow migrant workers and their families who are dependent on their remittances,” he said.

Monterona noted that the Saudi labor ministry did not specify how much of a foreign worker’s salary would be retained in the kingdom and how much he would be allowed to remit home.

Al-Arabiya quoted Fakieh as saying that the millions of Saudi rials being remitted by migrant workers was “harming” the kingdom’s economy.

“About nine to 10 workers in the country are foreigners. This has led to millions of rials being transferred to their home countries, harming the local economy,” Fakieh reportedly said.

Based on Saudi records, there are some 8 million migrant workers in the oil-rich kingdom, with 6 million of them employed in the private sector, Monterona said.

Expatriate workers remit “roughly 100 billion Saudi rials to their respective countries,” he added.

Citing Philippine Overseas Employment Administration records for last year, Monterona said 1.2 million Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia sent home $1.5 billion last year.

They came third after overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Canada (who remitted $2 billion) and those in the United States who sent $7.8 billion, Monterona said.

Last year, OFWs around the world remitted a total of $18.76 billion to the Philippines, he added.

Monterona said the Saudi salary protection program would “certainly affect the Philippines” as total remittances from OFWs worldwide “equate to 10 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product” and “is keeping the economy afloat.”