The Philippine has spent 70.6 million pesos to assist the overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement said, “More than 4,267 Filipinos from Jeddah were repatriated, and around 70.6 million pesos were spent in assisting distressed overseas Filipino workers in 2013.”

Manila regards 2013 as a year of crisis due to the mass repatriation and rush legalization of work status in the Kingdom.

It said that the repatriated Filipinos were among the 28,000 who sought assistance from the Philippine Consulate in for repatriation or transfer to local sponsors.

The Kingdom implemented its Saudization policy early last year, but gave a grace period to allow illegal foreign workers to get their paperwork in order or be sent home.

More than 1,500 Filipino workers flocked to the consulate in Jeddah and set up a tent city while they waited for their papers to be processed or their exit visas released.

“At the height of the crisis, the consulate took in close to 450 distressed Filipinos. In 2013, the government spent almost 10.8 million pesos in providing accommodation, food, children's formula and basic necessities for them,” the statement said, adding that at the end of the year, most Filipinos had successfully legalized their work status or had been repatriated.

Of the total number of repatriated Filipinos, around half, or 2,000 were women, most of whom ran away from their employers, while nearly 900 were undocumented Filipino children. Around 500 Filipinos are still awaiting the processing of their exit visas, the statement said.

According to 2012 figures from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), there were 330,040 newly hired and rehired Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia.