Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom consider themselves luckier than compatriots in other Middle Eastern countries, which have become flashpoints and where working and living have become dangerous.

“The last time that OFWs in the Kingdom had feared for their life because of impending war was during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990 and that was some 24 years ago,” said Cenon “Nonie” C. Sagadal, Jr., a community leader.

The OFWs stayed in places where they would be unlikely hit by Scud missiles fired by Iraqi troops, said Sagadal, the commander of the Knights of Rizal--Central Region Chapter (OKOR-CRC).

“We don’t have to worry about security, unlike Filipinos working in Libya, where a nurse was gang-raped and beheaded. For fear for their life, around 1,000 have agreed for sea evacuation,” said Arnold G. Pineda, a community leader in Buraidah, Qassim.

Pineda added that this should also be reason enough for Filipinos to continue working in the Kingdom instead of going to other countries where political stability and job security are at stake.

In Hail, Edmund Nieto who is an engineer working for Saudi Telecom, noted that the OFWs who have gone home have told stories about violence, which have continued to rage in Libya.

“Reading about their sad plight and the inconveniences they underwent makes me think that Filipinos in Saudi Arabia are better off as far as security is concerned,” he said.

He noted that Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario was scheduled to fly to Tunisia to organize an evacuation process as fighting resumed between militias seeking to control the Libyan capital’s international airport.

In Jeddah, a nurse said that while OFWs in the Kingdom are enjoying security, other compatriots in other countries in the region have at one time or another in the past also suffered from violence and the threat of war.

“These OFWs used to work in Bahrain, Yemen, Israel, Syria, among other countries,” he said.