A Filipino migrant rights group has issued an appeal to the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) labor market committee that recommends a two-year ban for all expatriate workers who will be leaving the Kingdom on final exit visas.

The regional coordinator of the Migrant Middle East (MME) groups, John Leonard Monterona, echoed his group’s appeal to the CSC labor committee saying, “We sincerely appeal to the chairman and members of the Council of Saudi Chambers labor committee to reconsider its two-year ban proposal for expatriate workers leaving the Kingdom on final exit visa"

However, Monterona clarified, “We understand very well that imposing a ban on expatriate workers is within the Saudi government Labor Ministry’s prerogative in order to boost its own Saudization program,” which would mean hiring more Saudi nationals into the business sector services and job opportunities.

“For one, we would like the committee to know and understand that not all migrant workers leaving the country on final exit visa has real desire to finally exit since many were only forced to exit due to labor disputes with their employers,” Monterona explained.

Monterona added that even the existing labor policy that stipulates a one-year ban on workers who refused to renew their contract with their employers is worth reconsidering.

“This policy posed a stumbling block to attain a so called ‘expat-friendly labor market environment’,” the Filipino migrant leader claimed.

MME also calls on the Filipino government, through its labor department, to proactively interact with its Saudi labor counterpart to discuss the implications of the proposed two-year ban.

“There is an existing bilateral labor agreement between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. We are urging labor officials of both parties to openly discuss the implications of the proposed two-year ban to the existing labor agreement and to the deployment and demobilization of hired Filipino workers,” Monterona said.