Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 4)— Starting Nov. 7, Philippine labor offices in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Al-Khobar will resume accepting job offers for Filipino workers who wish to work in Saudi Arabia, according to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).
DMW Secretary Susan Ople said in a media briefing Friday that there will be changes and improvements in employment contracts for the welfare of OFWs.
These include the following:
— Insurance for workers
— Saudi Arabia’s recruitment agencies to hire own welfare desk officers
—“Abusive” employers and agencies to be blacklisted; cooperative agencies to join “white list” subject to regular review
— Saudi government to help human trafficking victims
— More transparent payment system
The lifting of the deployment ban was first announced by the agency in September following bilateral discussions between officials of the Philippines and Saudi Arabia.
“Hindi tayo basta lang magbubukas ng Saudi deployment na walang malinaw at matibay na pundasyon para sa proteksyon ng ating mga manggagawa,” Ople said.
[Translation: We won’t simply resume deployment to Saudi if there are no clear protocols for the protection of our workers.]
Ople said the two nations will soon discuss salary review and other efforts to combat trafficking of migrant workers.
