Baldoz twits Migrante over ‘false report’

MANILA, Philippines—Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz on Monday disputed the claim of the migrant workers group Migrante International that Saudi Arabia immigration officials were starting to stamp “exit only” on passports of vacationing overseas Filipino workers because of the kingdom’s “Saudization” labor policy.

Baldoz said in a statement that the stamping of “exit only” on passports of vacationing OFWs was “not possible” because Saudi exit/reentry visas issued by Saudi Arabia’s passport department, or Jawasat, could not be changed by immigration authorities at the country’s airports.

“Labor Attaché Albert Valenciano said the report is false. He has checked with immigration officers who had denied the report and who had said that ‘if it is an exit/reentry visa then it cannot be changed at the airports’,” Baldoz said.

In his report, Valenciano assailed Migrante, saying it was playing up negative effects of the Saudization policy and urged the organization to be “more responsible” by producing the passport pages of the OFWs onto which the alleged “exit only” visa had been stamped.

Migrante itself on Monday claimed that 22 expatriates had lost their jobs since the Saudization policy was announced last month.

Valenciano explained that “final exit in Saudi Arabia is stamped only after a series of steps” taken by both the employee and the employer.

He said the steps included the issuance of a release letter or no objection certificate (NOC) from the employer stating that it was giving its consent to release the worker and to send him home to his mother country.

The worker then had to sign a final settlement in which the worker acknowledged that he had received all his monetary claims from his employer, Valenciano said.

In Congress, party-list Rep. Eulogio “Amang” Magsaysay on Monday asked the House committees on overseas workers affairs and labor and employment to jointly conduct an inquiry on the effects of Saudization on OFWs and the economy. With a report from Cynthia Balana