Manila: The Philippine government has expressed gratitude for Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud for allowing Filipinos, as well as other foreign workers affected by the massive retrenchment, to return to their countries.

“We immensely express our gratitude to King Salman for his concern to our OFWs,” Philippine Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello III said, as he relayed the update from the Philippine Overseas Labour Office in Riyadh.

King Salman had recently issued orders to waive immigration penalties to foreign workers with expired visas, thus lifting the major stumbling block the prevented thousands of them to return to their countries.

According to Bello, aside from waiving immigration penalties for overstaying workers, Saudi Arabia will also shoulder the cost of their airfares and will provide them with food aid.

Those who wish to be re-employed with get assistance so that they can work for other companies as well as legal aid for their money claims.

“We were also informed that the Ministry of Labour will allow the transfer of workers to other companies should they wish to continue working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The workers may look for new employers, and the good thing is the Ministry of Labour will mobilise the big manpower companies to offer jobs to workers,” Bello said.

Bello said the Saudi government’s Ministry of Labour has confirmed the King’s instruction to guarantee and protect the rights of foreign workers in Saudi Oger and other companies affected by oil crisis.

It may be recalled that thousands of workers lost their jobs and left stranded in Saudi Arabia over the past several months due to slump in oil prices.

The Filipino expat workers’ group, Migrante-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia earlier estimated that the difficulties in the oil sector would affect some 50,000 overseas Filipino workers.

Gary Martinez of the Migrante Partylist said that some 20,000 Filipino workers from Saudi Oger Ltd had been affected since last year while some 5,000 have been retrenched since last year.

On the part of the Philippine government, it said that it is also making efforts to make the situation less difficult for the affected workers.

“An inter-agency emergency relief assistance mission, composed of Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Labour and Employment, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and the Public Attorney’s Office, has been organised by the Philippine Government to support the ongoing operations of three Philippine Overseas Labour Offices in KSA,” he said.

Bello will return next week to Saudi Arabia, together with Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad III and POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac, to oversee the assistance mission operation.

DOLE officers, consisting of labour attaches, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration lawyers, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration welfare officers, and training personnel from TESDA, were divided into three teams for simultaneous deployment in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar.