DOLE to agencies: Buy tickets for Saudi OFWs within 48 hrs

Recruitment agencies that sent to Saudi Arabia 600 Filipino workers, who are now on “distressed" status and awaiting repatriation, were given two days to provide plane tickets for the workers to get home. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the Jeddah-based OFWs had run away from their employers and are staying at the Hajj Deportation Center there. "The recruitment agencies that deployed the distressed OFWs must provide the tickets within 48 hours so that the OFWs can already go back to the country," Baldoz said in a news release posted on the DOLE website, citing a report from Jeddah-based Labor Attaché Vicente Cabe. On the other hand, she directed Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Carlos Cao Jr. to suspend the documentary processing of the recruitment agencies that could not comply with the requirements of the law and with POEA rules and regulations. Baldoz also instructed Cabe to immediately provide the POEA with the list of recruitment agencies that deployed OFWs who had run away from their employers, so the POEA can go after these agencies. "While … Cabe continues to process the documentation of the distressed OFWs in Jeddah in coordination with officials of the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah, these recruitment agencies should have the pro-active initiative to provide the tickets if some of the OFWs they have deployed are in the deportation center," she said. Baldoz said that while the OWWA is ready to advance the repatriation tickets of its member-OFWs who are in distress, it will seek reimbursement from the agencies as it is the agencies’ lawful obligation. Meanwhile, Baldoz instructed the National Reintegration Center for OFWs to be ready to receive returning OFWs and provide them reintegration services.—JMA/JV, GMA News