Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz urged undocumented overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia to take advantage of job openings in the oil-rich country in order to legalize their stay.
Baldoz noted there were now more companies, particularly in Jeddah, that were open to hiring undocumented migrants who have until September to find ways to legalize their stay or leave the kingdom.
She said many private companies had expressed interest in participating in a job fair organized by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) in Jeddah.
“It’s like hitting two birds with one stone.” said Baldoz, explaining that OFWs can get employed and legalized at the same time since the employer would also be the “sponsor” for a working visa.
Amnesty deadline
Thousands of undocumented OFWs in Saudi Arabia are lining up for repatriation outside the Philippine Embassy there to avoid getting caught in a crackdown on illegally staying foreign workers. The Saudi King has extended an amnesty up to Nov. 3.
The amnesty deadline was initially set for July 3 and it allowed undocumented workers to leave the country without penalties, or to work on clearing deficiencies in their working visas.
According to labor attaché in Jeddah Alejandro Padaen, there were initially only four companies scheduled to participate in the job fair held on the premises of the Philippine consulate.
However, when news of the activity circulated, more companies joined the fair to offer jobs to around 300 undocumented OFWs who wanted to stay but had not yet found sponsors.
Women workers
Companies that posted job openings for Filipino workers in Jeddah included world-class hotel groups.
“The participation of these business entities will be good for women workers. We noticed that approximately 70 percent of the workers who came to the first job fair were women looking for jobs as cleaners,” Padaen said.
Baldoz and Padaen, however, warned undocumented workers against entering into transactions with a certain Abdul Aziz Khamees.
Khamees has allegedly been recruiting runaway Filipino women to work for his clients as cleaners but he confiscates the workers’ passports and makes them sign a document stating that they will pay him a penalty of 5,000 Saudi riyals if they decide to leave.
Padaen said they had received numerous complaints about Khamees failing to deliver promised jobs. These complaints have been endorsed to Consul Leo Tito Ausan of the Philippine consulate in Jeddah.
Suspicious recruiters
“Mr. Khamees, by the way, regularly recruits workers from the Philippines by tying up with different private recruitment agencies. He regularly goes to Manila to conduct recruitments,” Padaen said in his report.
Baldoz reminded Filipinos looking for overseas jobs to be very careful in their dealings with foreign recruiters, as well as with suspicious recruitment agencies.
“They can always check the credentials of recruiters on the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s website. The site can tell overseas job applicants whether or not the recruitment agency they are dealing with is licensed and if the overseas job they are applying for really exists,” Baldoz said.