Leonora and Sofia (not their real names) were scheduled to leave the Kingdom on Tuesday night but there was a problem with their plane tickets.
“Vice Consul Roussel R. Reyes told me that he went to King Khaled International Airport to assist them. He was able to talk to Leonora who told him that there was a problem regarding their tickets. However, he was not told what the problem was,” John Leonard Monterona of Migrante Middle East told Arab News on Wednesday.
He added the authorities assured him the problem would be sorted out so that Leonora, who is also known by her Muslim name Kristine Ali Noor, and Sofia could eventually leave and rejoin their families back home.
Their repatriation was expedited with the help of Philippine Embassy officials after Migrante informed them about a text message it received from Leonora’s mother in the Philippines.
“The mother was asking for Migrante's help to expedite Leonora’s repatriation because she was pregnant,” Monterona said.
Leonora and Sofia were detained at the prison for women (Al-Nisa) in Riyadh after they were found in January in a villa in Diriyah district with three Indian nationals.
Reportedly drunk, Sofia was shouting. Neighbors were believed to have called police to report the incident. The Indian nationals were detained in the Malaz district.
Arab News reported earlier that Leonora and Sofia were staying with five other Filipino housemaids in a villa in Majma, around 250 km north of Riyadh.
Both of them had earlier escaped from their respective employers in Riyadh and went to Majma.
Early in January this year, they were dropped off on separate occasions by a Pakistani driver named Arshad in Diriyah.
Leonora, who is from Baguio City north of Manila, came to the Kingdom to work as a caregiver but ended up as housemaid. She is separated from her husband and has children who are under her mother’s care.
Her first employer took her back to the agency that deployed her when she complained that she was a caregiver and not a housemaid. The agency looked for another employer who allegedly raped her, causing her to run away and she eventually ended up in Majma.
She had earlier worked at a gasoline station and a restaurant in Baguio City. Sofia is from Kalinga province north of Manila.
