“Aside from providing medical assistance to Sto. Domingo, we also requested the embassy to expedite her repatriation so that she could at least be with her family during her sunset years.

She has been at the BK for the last two months,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante Middle East regional coordinator, told Arab News on Saturday.

BK is a government facility for female Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who ran away from their employers.

It's being run by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) which is under the embassy. Monterona added that the reply of the embassy was very disappointing “as it did not provide us any hope or even indication that Sto. Domingo would be repatriated as soon as possible considering her present condition.”

Arab News contacted on Saturday the embassy official concerned with the case but he did not answer the call. “We specifically requested that aside from providing her medical care, the embassy should also arrange her immediate repatriation,” Monterona told Arab News.

Monterona added that “under the new-amended Migrant Workers Act, or Republic Act 10022, the government mandates a mandatory repatriation of underage migrant workers. But how about the mandatory repatriation of sick OFWs, 70 years old and above?”

He added that the embassy should be able to do something about Sto. Domingo's case. Before Sto. Domingo was admitted at the BK, she was staying with another Filipina, Marcelina Calimag, who is a dressmaker in Nassim.

Sto. Domingo, who is from Sta. Cruz, Manila, arrived in the Kingdom in 1984 to work as maid, but she ran away from her sponsor.

Although an illegal resident of the Kingdom, she continued working, taking up odd jobs such as washing clothes, dressmaking and cleaning houses. She became too old and weak to work and fend for herself.

Calimag eventually asked Sto Domingo to stay with her and looked after her. But on Dec. 17, 2010, Calimag sought the help of the Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan, a group affiliated with Migrante Middle East.