Eight Filipino teachers have filed complaints with the Saudi Ministry of Labor and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh (POLO-Riyadh) to collect outstanding dues from a school that has been closed down.

The teachers had gone on strike allegedly due to unpaid salaries two days before the school reopened this year, but then disappeared after they had filed their complaints.

The teachers did not stay at the Bahay Kalinga (BK), where 219 female Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) currently live, while awaiting their repatriation paperwork to be processed.

The BK serves as a temporary shelter for female OFWs who have escaped from their sponsors.

“They disappeared after filing the complaint and we don’t know where they are,” said Labor Attaché Resty SM. Dela Fuente.

According to one parent, the school had about 140 students when classes reopened but have not been refunded for what they had paid as matriculation fees.

“Some of the teachers hadn’t been paid for two to three months,” she said.

She added that about 40 students had transferred to a nearby school, while the rest re-enrolled in other schools, mostly in Riyadh’s Sulaymaniyah District.

Sunrise International School had also previously closed down, while Fawaq International School has changed its Tagalog curriculum to English although it still has Filipino students, she said.

There are about eight Philippine international schools in the Saudi capital.