JEDDAH, 28 May 2007 — Philippine Consulate officials here yesterday warned Filipino workers in the Kingdom who are seeking to return home beware of “fixers” promising an easy exit.

Welfare Officer Abdurajik Samain, speaking for Consul General Pendosina N. Lomondot, who was on a mission to Tabuk, issued the warning as dozens of workers flocked to the consulate in Jeddah, demanding immediate repatriation.

“There’s no easy way out. Don’t believe in talk about a backdoor because there’s no such thing as a backdoor,” Samain told to the workers.

He also explained that the two-month amnesty program offered by the Saudi government last April was not applicable to Filipino workers and other expatriate workers in the Kingdom. “That’s only for foreigners who came to the Kingdom for Umrah or Haj and overstayed their visas,” he explained to Arab News.

Samain said most of the 96 Filipinos who came to the consulate yesterday were skilled workers who had disagreements with their employers. “The trouble is that many of these victims of labor disputes were doubly victimized by our own unscrupulous compatriots preying on the unwary,” Samain said in Filipino.

Some of the workers interviewed by Arab News said they came from various places in the Kingdom and went to Jeddah because they were told that for a fee they could leave through the “backdoor.”

Christopher Amazon, a 22-year-old father of one, said he gave what little money he had saved to a group of men who promised to get him “directly to the Deportation Section” of the Immigration office, only to be told to go the Al-Kandara Bridge in order to be picked up by the Passport Department for deportation.

To the dismay of Filipinos, according to the workers, the police or Passport Department personnel refused to pick them up.

“Some of us have been sleeping under the bridge for weeks now. We went there because we were told that the Jawazat (Passport Department) would pick us up and deport us to the Philippines. However, the Jawazat officials always exclude us Filipinos when they come,” said Mar Mungcal, a 40-year-old heavy equipment operator, the designated leader of the workers who called themselves taga-tulay,” or “people of the bridge.”

A Dammam-based civil engineer, who identified himself only as Ed, said he decided to try his luck to leave the Kingdom through the “backdoor” upon the advice of an unnamed employee at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Alkhobar.

“It turned out that there is no backdoor. I am calling on other Filipinos not to come to Jeddah. If you want to leave for home, do it the legal way,” he said in a phone interview.

A consulate staff, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak, said the so-called “backdoor exit” did exist years ago but it was stopped by Saudi authorities when they learned about it.

“Dati mayroon ngang nakakalabas na binibigyan dito ng exit papers kaya lang natuklasan ng mga awtoridad dahil sa katarantaduhan din ng iba nating kababayan,” the officer said.

He said some OFWs who passed through the “backdoor” would call their employers and taunt them, even revealing how they managed to get out.

“Mayroon pa akong alam na kaso ng ilang kababayan, karamihan driver, na tinawagan ang amo para sabihin halimbawa na nayari niya ang asawa o anak ng amo. Nagsumbong ngayon ang mga ito sa mga kinauukulan kaya naghigpit,” the officer added.

Labor Disputes

Mungcal, who is from Floridablanca town in President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s province of Pampanga, said he left his employer because apart from being paid much lower than the $375 monthly plus food allowance promised in his contract, he was also made to work overtime and do odd jobs.

“I’m trained as a heavy equipment operator but they wanted me to do jobs such as cleaning. They also deducted from my salary when the equipment I was handling was damaged. I was made to sign documents that I didn’t understand. It turned out that it was an acceptance of the deductions made,” he said.

Mungcal also said that while his contract stated that his work site would be in Najran, he was sent to Jeddah instead.

“Dahil sa masamang karanasan namin na ito, gusto naming iparating sa mga kinauukulan sa atin na huwag magpaalis ng mga manggagawa nang wala sa ayos. Dapat siguruhing masusunod ang kontrata (With this sad experience, I am appealing to our officials concerned not to allow any worker to leave for abroad without ensuring that their contracts would be followed),” he said.

Mungcal said he planned to finish his contract but he could no longer stomach the worsening condition of their accommodation.

“We were made to sleep on the cement without at least a carpet or mattress,” he said.

Amazon, who is from San Pedro in Laguna province, south of Manila, said he was with a group of 30 first-timers that arrived in the Kingdom on March 15.

He said the agency that recruited them, Arab Peninsula, gave them a contract stating that they would work in Riyadh for a railway station but the workers were sent to Dammam in the Eastern Province instead.

Amazon said he left because he was made to do jobs at a train workshop when his contract stated that he was to be a cleaner at a station.

Besides, he said, they were made to pay for their iqama (national ID), which costs more than SR600 monthly pay, or about $160. “I managed to escape and I arrived in Jeddah with some acquaintances on May 14,” he said.

Ed, the engineer, said he decided to leave his company because while his contract stated a monthly salary of SR6,000, he was paid only SR3,000.

“I tried repeatedly to resign but my employer refused to release me. When I sought help from the Labor Office in Alkhobar for immediate repatriation, I was told to try my luck in Jeddah,” he said.

Task Force

A combined team of consulate and POLO personnel yesterday took the names of the workers and other necessary information “for processing.”

Samain said he talked by phone with his boss in Manila, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) chief Marianito Roque, and Roque assured that workers that their cases would be taken up with urgency.

Samain said the OWWA and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) will coordinate with the agencies that deployed the distressed workers to seek help in getting plane tickets for them.

At the same time, the consulate will take the workers’ cases to offices concerned in the Kingdom to help secure exit visas or papers for them.

Samain said he is organizing a task force to help deal with the problem of accommodating and feeding the distressed workers.

Last night he took the occasion to ask community leaders, who gathered for a meeting at the consulate for the Independence Day celebrations, to help provide food and other necessary assistance.

Administrative Officer Camilo Mendiola said he was authorized by Consul General Lomondot to let the workers remain at the consulate for the night.

In addition to the 96 workers, some 20 mostly women and children overstayers also came to the consulate and sought help in going home, Mendiola said.