Philippines, December 7, 2013
Bulk of workers at KSA are not Arabs but Filipinos 28%
From Rappler
From Inquirer - Saudization
All good things must come to an end. Before OFWs thought that jobs in KSA will be forever. But as they say in a song, "Nothing good gonna last forever" And the jobs in KSA is expected to dry up, now that demand for oil is on the decline. Signs that things are not so good in Saudi: unemployment is high (9%), Saudi is going solar to save on their oil production for export
Thus the Saudization is expected. Saudis cannot depend on foreign labor forever. KSA is for Arabs and expatriates will have their time end. Saudization finally took effect November 3, 2013, after long period of extensions to give time for workers to regularize their documents. The law mandates that KSA residents must now be employees of over 300,000 companies located in KSA, as KSA faces huge unemployment problem
The bigger problem is the illegals in KSA. Those who abandoned the original labor contract in effect are illegals. Filipinos who went there and found out that the job offers here in RP is different from the actual contract abroad, quit, and work for others. They in effect violated, not the Arabs the labor and other agreements and must face imprisonment. They could have resigned. But they did not. And so they face punishment from the host country
The Commission on Overseas Filipino Workers made an estimate of 1,27 million in KSA, with 108,000 considered as irregular or undocumented. ASec Raul Hernandez of DFA, said that 4,302 Filipinos in Saudi have been repatriated; and issued travel docs to 9,000 others. Some l,500 have voluntarity signified their intention of going home and awaiting their travel documents
