Another Ifugao OFW Needs Urgent Repatriation

Jobless and with two children, an Ifugao woman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is the subject of a campaign for immediate repatriation by Migrante. The woman is suffering from goiter and she might be charged unfairly in court because her children lack birth records.

By Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat.com

BAGUIO CITY — A group of Filipino workers stranded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is calling for the immediate repatriation of an Ifugao woman who had been abandoned by her employer and is now suffering from goiter. She is living with her two Riyadh-born children while her husband is languishing in a Riyadh jail for an alleged drug-related offense.

The Migrante Party-Cordillera is supporting the migrant worker’s immediate repatriation, and in fact has submitted facts of the case to the regional office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to immediately act on the said case. The move is not only for humanitarian reasons but more importantly to save the woman who can be charged of trumped-up cases, similar to what happened to another Ifugao woman in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

 The OFW (overseas Filipino worker) is Susan Dimmuyog, 31, of Uhaj, Banaue, Ifugao. She was employed at the Nawal Al-Bayan Establishment in Riyadh but the latter “ordered” her not to report to work because of her children. The date she was prohibited to report for work was not contained in the document. Pert CPM recruitment agency in Manila deployed Dimmuyog to Riyadh, according to the Riyadh-based Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan (KGS).

In July this year, Dimmuyog went to the Philippine Embassy for repatriation assistance but no action has been heard from the Embassy as of press time.

Dimmuyog still lives in a Riyadh apartment with her two children, two-year-old Abdulaziz and one-year old Sheikha. An information from Kapatiran ng mga Migranteng Stranded sa Riyadh (KAMI-SR) said that Filipino workers in Riyadh extended support to her and her children.

“Susan has sold her belongings to buy milk and food for her children. She has to pay rent for their apartment this November,” read the KAMI-SR document.

Dimmuyog’s husband, Mishael Yerro, is in jail for drug-related cases since Sept. 7 this year at the Riyadh Dammam Reformatory Jail. Yerro is from the Visayas.

In an information sheet, the Cordillera Migrante Party appealed to OWWA-CAR to act immediately on Dimmuyog’s case.

“We urge the government to repatriate Susan and her two children. The Saudi government might possibly charge the woman with prostitution if she fails to show birth certificates and related records of her children,” Migrante spokesperson Joey Uminga said.

Under the Saudi law, a woman who gave birth to a child (or children) without any document is chargeable of prostitution under the assumption that the child (or children) is a product of illicit relationship.

The Yerro children were born at the Prince Sultan Hospital in Riyadh but they have no birth, KAMI-SR revealed.  Arthur L. Allad-iw for NORDIS / Posted by Bulatlat.com

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