CBCP welcomes Saudi ban on maids

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) supports the ban imposed by Saudi Arabia on the hiring of Filipino maids.

Fr. Edwin Corros, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People of the CBCP, said the ban would prevent more abuses being committed against Filipino domestic helpers by their employers.

“It is better if we do not deploy household service workers to Saudi in the meantime so that they would also avoid the possibility of being abused as has been reported before,” Corros said.

But he also expressed concern for those Filipinos who were already in Saudi Arabia and had no other means of employment.

“What will happen to those who are already there and those who can’t find other employment opportunities besides those in Saudi Arabia? What will happen to them?” Corros said.

At present, there are around 120,000 to 150,000 Filipino domestics working in Saudi Arabia.

Starting July 1, Saudi Arabia stopped hiring domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia.

In reaction to the ban, former Labor Undersecretary Susan Ople yesterday urged government agencies to get their act together and provide a united response to the Saudi government’s decision to ban Filipino domestics.

“We cannot afford to send mixed signals or come up with a vague response because the jobs of millions of Filipino workers could be on the line,” Ople, head of the Blas F. Ople Center,  a non-government organization that assists distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Ople said it was important to know if the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine government supported the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) decision not to lower the $400 minimum monthly salary for Filipino domestics working in Saudi.

This DoLE position has been cited as the reason behind the Saudi government’s decision to impose the ban.

“The Saudi government is actually doing us a favor because it is forcing the Philippine government to formulate a unified position on the issue of overseas domestic workers and why our women continue to leave despite constant reports of abuse and rapes involving household workers in the Middle East,” Ople said.

Nevertheless, Ople said that both parties must maintain an open line of communication because the bilateral ties between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia go a long way back.

“The message should be clear—Saudi Arabia is a good friend of the Philippines and a hospitable host to many of our workers, particularly those valued for their skills and experience,” Ople said.

“The Philippines needs to walk the diplomatic tightrope in asserting the human rights of our household workers without affecting hundreds of thousands of Filipino success stories that abound in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” she added.

Ople also called on the Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to monitor cases of Filipino maids who are not being allowed to come home by their Saudi employers even though their work contracts and residency permits had expired.