The Philippines is to ask for clarification from Saudi Arabia after it announced it would stop granting work permits for Filipino domestic staff, President Benigno Aquino's spokesman said on Thursday.
Philippines officials will also look for other markets for workers in the event that the freeze, announced in Riyadh on Wednesday, is put into full effect, Aquino spokesman Edwin Lacierda told a news conference.
About 90,000 overseas Filipino workers will be affected by Saudi Arabia's ban on Philippines domestic helpers, following its refusal to accept Philippines' hiring guidelines, according to a local paper.
"We estimate that some 90,000 cleaners, guards and watchmen, construction workers, and other low-skilled types of labourers [who are working in small establishments] could be affected by the new Saudisation programme — known as nitaqat [zones or ranges in Arabic]," Labour Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said in a statement which was published by the Bulletin.
