DFA exec: Crackdown on undocumented workers abroad not targeting Pinoys alone

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday belied reports that simultaneous crackdowns against undocumented workers in various countries targeted Filipinos, specifically.

Speculations on OFWS being targeted were triggered by the recent deportation of 75 undocumented Filipinos from Japan and the repatriation of close to 900 overseas Filipino workers from Saudi Arabia starting March this year.

In a text message to GMA News Online, DFA Spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez said other countries “are merely undertaking routine immigration law enforcement activities” and the deportation and repatriation of undocumented foreigners are not focused on Filipinos alone.

He added that contrary to Filipino migrant group Migrante International’s claim of massive deportations of OFWs in Japan and South Korea, the government has not received any reports of a crackdown on Filipinos in the two Asian countries.

The DFA on Tuesday announced that 75 undocumented Filipinos, including eight children, were deported from Japan over the weekend due to immigration violations.

Earlier in July, 25 undocumented OFWs returned to the Philippines from Saudi Arabia a day after King Abdullah announced a second extension of the reprieve for illegal migrant workers.

The latest batch of returnees had brought the total number of Filipino repatriates to 883, the DFA said.

Hernandez however clarified that the repatriations were not part of Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on undocumented migrant workers since the OFWs left the kingdom during the extended grace period granted by King Abdullah.

“Saudi Arabia has not yet conducted a crackdown. On May 10, it issued new guidelines which would facilitate the repatriation of or regularization of undocumented expatriate workers there. Our undocumented OFWs are availing of this grace period which will end on 3 November, hence the repatriations,” he said.

In a report on the Arab News site earlier this month, Philippine Consul General Uriel Norman Garibay said an estimated 17,500 undocumented OFWs remain in Saudi Arabia pending repatriation or legalization of their status.

Hernandez said DFA’s current focus is monitoring the “intensified implementation of immigration and labor laws” in Kuwait.

The Philippine Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in the oil-rich Middle East country set up in June a special task force to help OFWs who were allegedly being harassed by authorities there despite having legal residence statuses. — DVM, GMA News