Ambassador Ezzedin H. Tago headed a Philippine Embassy team to meet with leaders of various Filipino organizations in the Eastern Region.

“We reviewed various concerns such as consular outreach missions, the amnesty period and services to Filipino nationals in the region,” he said.

The Filipino envoy thanked the various organizations for their support to the embassy’s outreach program.

He said that by the end of 2013 the embassy should have completed 21 consular outreach missions in Alkhobar alone and neighboring cities in the Eastern Region.

He also indicated that the embassy plans to conduct more outreach missions spanning a period of two weeks at a designated venue and that the dates for the special outreach limited to passport services would be announced in the near future.

The embassy and the Filipino community also reviewed recent developments regarding the amnesty granted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.

The embassy issued travel documents and renewed expired passports and issued replacement passports for thousands of Filipinos after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) waived various regular requirements that facilitated the issuance of the documents and shortened the period for the issuance of passports.

The envoy urged all organizations to reach out to their members and friends to encourage those who have not yet corrected their status to do so in the next few days before the deadline ends on Nov. 3.

He noted the frequent warnings by the Saudi Interior and Labor ministries for all illegal expatriates to take advantage of the amnesty and correct their status immediately.

He also reminded the organizations to be aware of and respect the Kingdom’s rules and regulations to avoid any inconvenience or difficulty in the future.

He stressed that nationals should not take matters into their own hands and immediately refer cases of Filipinos requiring assistance to the embassy and officials of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) for them to closely coordinate with the host government on these matters.

He reiterated that it is serious in its fight against fixers who facilitate forged or fake documents of various kinds.