RIYADH, 2 February 2004 — The first group of 16 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who staged a hunger strike at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh late last year may go home early next week, according to the Sangguniang Masang Pilipino, International (Filipino Grass Roots’ Forum) which has been involved with the authorities in both the Kingdom and the Philippines.
“Labor Attaché Manuel Roldan told us that the embassy had worked on travel documents so that two or three of them could fly to the Philippines next Saturday at the earliest,” an official of the Sangguniang Pilipino said yesterday.
The announcement comes after violent protests by Filipinos who picketed the office of Administrator Virgilio Angelo of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) last Tuesday.
“I invited them to my office to discuss their complaints but they wanted to talk in the streets. That cannot be. It appears that they don’t really want to talk,” he said.
The Sangguniang Pilipino official said that the employers of the other strikers must be contacted in order to arrange exit visas for them. Explaining the legal process, he said that after the hunger strikers left the Diplomatic Quarter (DQ), they went to the office of the Riyadh governor to seek his help.
“They were given a sealed envelope which they brought to the Immigration Department. When it was opened, it contained instructions that their case should be processed,” he said.
The 16 strikers made the news when they staged a hunger strike, demanding that the Philippine Embassy send them home. The group had run away from their employers for a number of reasons, ranging from no iqamas, accusations of embezzlement, harassment, unpaid salaries and maltreatment including physical assault.
When negotiations failed to end the strike, the police were called to take the strikers from the embassy to a hospital for treatment. Some members of the group had alleged health problems.
