Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development announced on September 4th that the Saudi government has officially appointed the Kingdom’s first-ever labour attaché to the Philippines.

According to the announcement, the function of the labour attaché office in Manila’s Saudi embassy will include: facilitating of recruitment procedures between the two countries; speeding up the process of recruitments to Saudi citizens, screening migrant workers and ensuring their suitability to the Saudi labour market; and raising awareness among prospective workers of Saudi’s labour and residency laws.

The Philippines Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment, Silvestre Bello III welcomed the appointment adding that this move will provide "closer and easier" coordination in recruitment, especially with respect to the welfare of Filipino citizens in Saudi Arabia.

"The appointment is an indication of their desire to have more workers from the Philippines. They must have seen that we are slowing down the deployment of our workers there,” he added.

The appointment of Saudi labour attaché in the Philippines is the first of seven planned appointments in several sending countries, which include Egypt, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as part of measures to facilitate labour migration during and after the Covid-19 Pandemic.