Rody vows to bring home 5,000 OFWs from S. Arabia

At least 5,000 Overseas Filipino Workers who were stranded in Saudi Arabia are bound to go home after the visit of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Middle East.

Duterte said that on his return to the Philippines after his visit to Saudi Arabia, he will bring home with him around 5,000 OFWs who were stranded there because they lacked documents.

“Those who have the clearance, I will fly them home. Those who were given clemency to where ever it was, that’s 5,000 of them I will bring them back,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said that there is an ongoing repatriation in Saudi Arabia for foreign nationals who do not have appropriate documents.

Around 15,000 Filipinos are stranded in Saudi Arabia for lack of documents.

Meanwhile, Department of Labor and Employment secretary Silvestre Bello said that they are targeting 15,000 stranded OFWs to return to the country this April.

Bello added that there are DOLE officials who are currently in Saudi Arabia right now to process the documents of the stranded OFWs.

Aside from the 15,000 stranded OFWs there were also 31 Filipinos who were in the death row in the Middle East.

On the other hand, Duterte revealed that there were already discussions about those Filipinos who were abused by their employers in the Middle East.

Duterte though, did not disclose any further details.

Duterte arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday evening as the first part of his trip in the Middle East.

He is set to meet with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to to seek ways of further broadening cooperation, particularly in politico-security and defense, trade among others.

After his visit to Saudi Arabia Duterte will go to the Kingdom of Bahrain and then proceed to Doha, Qatar.

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