Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - After criticizing the Philippine posts in Saudi Arabia and in the Middle East for not even acknowledging several cases that have been endorsed by its rights and welfare officers, Migrante-Middle East appealed to Vice President Jejomar Binay to take the lead by directing concerned government agencies to attend on numerous OFWs cases not only in the Middle East but in other part of the world.
“We have been endorsing several cases of distress OFWs through emails and calls to the concerned officials at the Philippine embassies and consulates, but these were not even acknowledge,” said John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle regional coordinator.
Monterona said for the past months they have been re-sending case referrals, twice and even third reminders, but still no reply from the concerned RP embassy officials.
Various Migrante chapters in the Middle East have been receiving request for assistance from distress OFWs to an average of 7 to ten cases daily.
"In Saudi Arabia alone, it averages five to 7 cases daily, aside from the cases that have been referred to us by the families in the Philippines thru Migrante International-Philippine office," Monterona revealed.
Most of these cases are abused and maltreated domestic workers pleading to rescue them from their abusive employers.
Monterona said this is the reason why Migrante case officers along with the victims have to come to the Philippine embassy for a case dialog to follow the updates of the cases that have been endorsed to the embassy, “otherwise we would not know if embassy officials are properly attending on cases we have endorsed to them,” he averred.
“Sad to say that what our distress OFWs are getting is lip service from Embassy officials who are in fact have the obligation to provide assistance to distress OFWs without dilly-dallying,” Monterona added.
“As Presidential adviser on OFWs concerns, we would like to convey to the good Vice President our appeal to immediately attend on the numerous cases of distress OFWs not only in the Middle East but in other countries as well,” Monterona ended. # # #
Written by:
John Leonard Monterona
Migrante-Middle regional coordinator
Email: [email protected]
