OFWs rounded up in Saudi crackdown on illegal migrants

MANILA, Philippines—Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have been among a number of illegal immigrants rounded up by the Saudi authorities in their latest crackdown, international rights group Migrante International said Tuesday.

“Saudi authorities’ heightened crackdown on undocumented migrants that started last week nabbed at least 30 OFWs as per the initial combined reports we have received so far from our affiliates in the Kingdom,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator, said in a statement.

According to the Saudi Ministry of Interior, the reason for the crackdown was allegedly to stem the rise in the country’s crime rate. Some 900 migrants were reportedly arrested in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in the first days of the crackdown.

“The common notion that illegal migrants were the very reason why crime rate escalates in the Kingdom is fairly objectionable. Most of the so called illegal migrants were actually victim of abuses, maltreatment and labor rights violations who were forced to abscond,” Monterona said.

“The undocumented migrants certainly didn’t like their situation being violators of the host government immigration and labor policies, but there are factors that [they] need to look at such as the treatment and respect on the rights of expatriate workers by their employers,” he said.

Migrante claimed that most of the immigrants rounded up were “Asian migrant workers without resident permits, those working in jobs not matching with their work permit, and others working with another employer who were not their sponsors.”

Saudi Arabia is the second most popular destination for OFWs. There are at least 1.2 million permanent, temporary, and undocumented Filipinos in Saudi Arabia according to December 2012 figures from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.

Of the total figure, more than 1.1 million are temporary, or Filipinos who are in the country for a limited duration for work.

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