"We have been endorsing several cases of distressed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) through e-mails and calls to the embassy and consulate officials," said John Leonard Monterona, the organization's regional coordinator. "However, we have not received any reply regarding these cases."

An embassy official said on condition of anonymity that the e-mails regarding these referrals was addressed to the Department of Foreign Affairs' Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA) and that the e-mails were only copied to the embassy, suggesting that it's the DFA-OUMWA that is responsible for responding to the referrals.

In an e-mail to Arab News on Thursday, Monterona said that one of the cases endorsed by Migrante was that of Marvin Malanggay who is currently in a prison in Riyadh. Migrante sought government help in acquiring clemency. Malanggay was caught allegedly selling liquor in December 2009 and Migrante has requested "an update on his case."

Monterona said Philippines officials have declined the request for this update. For his part, the embassy official claims that Malanggay himself "did not want to give what the group wanted." Nevertheless, he added, the embassy has asked Saudi officials to expedite the case.

Migrante-Middle East says it receives between seven and ten requests a day from distressed OFWs working in the Kingdom.

"Most of the cases involved abuse or maltreatment of maids," Monterona said.

OFWs working in the Kingdom who face labor abuses often resort to fleeing their employers, seeking either illegal work in the black market for labor or trying to get themselves deported outside of the proper channels. In many cases, women are better off because the embassy and consulates offer shelter to them. Men, on the other hand, often find themselves with nowhere to go except to seek illegal work. Both often rely on charity to survive. One of these OFWs is Carlo (not his real name), a family driver who is from Sta. Rosa, Laguna, south of Manila. He used to work in Riyadh's Naseem district for a sponsor whom he said used to intimidate him. Eventually he found himself being bounced around the system to no avail.

First the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) gave Carlo a letter for the Office of the Governorate in Riyadh. The case officer at the Governorate's office attempted to call Carlo's former employer who could not be contacted. Eventually, the case officer gave a letter to Carlo for the municipality where the former employer lived.

"But the municipality could not contact my former employer, so I was given a letter, which I brought to my former employer's house. But my former employer refused to accept it," Carlo said.

For an OFW who does not have a job, it's very difficult to fend for himself while waiting for or attending a hearing of his case. One of them is Jimmy (not his real name). While the hearing of his case is going on, he applied for a job as a waiter in a Filipino restaurant but the restaurant could not hire him because he was a runaway. "The management told me that from time to time, the religious police visit the restaurant and check if all staff members are legal residents or not," he said.

While the Ministry of Labor can provide a temporary work permit to employees seeking to break their relationship with their sponsor due to labor violations, the permit is difficult to obtain.

"The temporary work permit is issued depending on a runaway's ability to convince the Ministry of Labor to issue him a work permit," said an official at the POLO on condition of anonymity.