Runaway Filipinos wait for deportation under Saudi bridge

For more than a month, at least 60 runaway Filipino workers have been staying under a bridge in Jeddah, waiting for help to bring them back to the Philippines. “Mahirap po dito, pag umuulan wala kaming masilungan kundi sa puno o flyover sa Al-Khandara," said Bonifacio Franco Jr. They put up tents to protect themselves from cold weather especially at night. The Filipinos were victimized not just once, but twice, or may be, even more times. “Nagbayad po kami ng 800 Saudi riyals sa tinatawag na Myra, isang Filipino din po, kapalit ang pag-uwi namin sa Pilipinas," Franco said. Another who did not want to be named said he paid 1,800 riyals to a fixer to bring him to Jeddah and eventually be repatriated to the Philippines through what was known as “backdoor exit." After paying the fixers, the Filipinos were taken to a safehouse and later sent to the Al-Khandara flyover, supposedly for Saudi immigration officers to pick them up and deport them to the Philippines. “We need food. We don’t have food anymore and most of us are getting sick. We need our government’s help," said Fernando Francisco, 50 years old from La Loma, Quezon City and works as operator-driver in Dammam. The workers had different stories to tell. Some were not paid by their employers, others did not get their overtime wage or paid below the rate stated in the contract. Imelda Remis, one of the stranded OFWs from Davao, said she ran away from her work because her sponsor tried to rape her. Francisco said his employer refused to send him home after he resigned. “I complained but he was not giving any assistance, that’s why I ran away," he said. “Legal po trabaho namin, ‘yung iba nga lang nag-TNT na dahil nga sa sinapit sa employers," Franco said in an e-mail to GMANews.TV. “Sa ngayon po ang kailangan po naming tulong ay mapauwi na kami sa Pilipinas. Kami po ay lubos na umaasa na matutulungan n’yo sa aming hinaing. Nawa po ay makauwi na kami sa aming mga pamilya," Franco said. “Please help us because we have no work here already. We don’t have enough money to buy our foods; we only stay in the tent under the Candarra flyover for almost one month now," he appealed. The workers complain of the cold weather, especially at night, and the presence of mosquitoes, which could be disease carriers. “We sought the help of our embassy here in Jeddah, KSA but still there is no development regarding our problems," Franco added. Philippine Consulate General Ezzedin Tago said the government’s repatriation program covers only distressed Filipinos who had been released from detention and for Muslims who overstayed their Umrah and Hajj visas. Those who have absconded from their employers are risking arrest, investigation, and detention, he warned. Tago advised runaway Filipino workers to seek the help of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) for the settlement of their problems or cases with their employers, and their eventual repatriation upon resolution of the cases. Tago renewed the consulate general’s warning to Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia to be wary of fixers or members of syndicates out to deceive them into believing of an easier route to deportation through the “backdoor exit" in Jeddah. He said some fixers or agents even pretended to have authority from the consulate to offer exit arrangements to the runaway Filipinos. The agents collect between 500 and 2, 500 riyals from each unsuspecting victim, then disappears after getting the money. Tago said the consulate has been receiving reports that the fixers often leave their victims at the Sharafiya near the Mahmoud Saed mall, or in open spaces under a bridge believed to be pick-up stations of Saudi deportation personnel, in the hope that they would be picked up and deported. Almost 1,000 runaway Filipinos had similar problems in May 2007. They were eventually sent home through Philippine government’s diplomatic intervention with the Saudi government. Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Antonio Villamor said "the embassy and the consulate are always for the welfare of the OFWs but we also have our limitations; we can help anytime but it must be legal." "We don’t want to commit if it is illegal because that is against our good relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We have something to consider also; we can not correct a wrong with another wrong," he pointed out when asked what kind of assistance the embassy could extend to the stranded Filipinos. - GMANews.TV, with reports from Ronaldo Concha