A migrant rights advocacy group has called on the Philippine government to provide due assistance to at least one million Filipinos facing threats of massive layoffs due to Saudization.
Repatriate undocumented migrant workers from Saudi Arabia now – Gabriela
“How can the Aquino administration have the gall to assert that the Philippines is a ‘tiger economy’ when we continue to drive workers out of the country because of joblessness, low wages, lack of basic social services and unending price hikes?” – Migrante
Bulatlat.com managing editor Benjie Oliveros interviews John Monterona, regional coordinator of Migrante Middle East, and Emilyn Bulaclac, wife of Elju Bulaclac, a stranded overseas Filipino worker in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
A video showing a group of Saudi authorities “binding and beating alleged illegal immigrants” has been circulating. The report said the video, posted on YouTube, has been circulating online and is believed to be a footage from the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Migrante Middle East projects that under the Saudization Nitaqat scheme, some 30 percent of the 1.2M Filipinos in Saudi Arabia or around 360,000 OFWs would be affected.