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Monday, September 12, 2011

Philippines to help workers displaced from Saudi Arabia

By Reuters

MANILA - The Philippines will seek work for tens of thousands of Filipinos who may lose their jobs in Saudi Arabia as both countries implement policies to protect their workers, weakening a key stream of remittances to the Southeast Asian nation.

A workers' group says around 40 percent of the 1.2 million Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia are at risk from Riyadh's plans to make firms hire more Saudis and a push by Asian countries for better conditions for their citizens working as domestic help.

"We have alternative markets and we're confident that those workers that will be displaced in Saudi Arabia will be absorbed in other areas," deputy presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte told reporters.

She did not say where those workers could be redeployed. Saudi Arabia is the biggest employer of Filipinos in the Middle East, and the turmoil this year means the region is not likely to absorb such numbers.

Last year, remittances from Saudi Arabia grew 5 percent to $1.54 billion, 8 percent of total remittances of $18.76 billion, which help underpin consumer spending in the Philippines.

Total inflows from overseas foreign workers (OFWs) grew 8.2 percent in 2010. The central bank expected similar growth this year, but it cut the forecast to 7 percent after the trouble in the Middle East and North Africa and Japan's disasters in March.

A cut in the number of OFWs in Saudi Arabia could see that forecast lowered again, which could weaken economic growth.

In May, the Saudi government announced a plan to strictly impose a "Saudisation" labour policy requiring at least 10 percent of the workforce of all companies to be Saudi citizens, with companies having until September to comply.

Last month, the labour minister said the kingdom would not renew work permits of unskilled foreign workers, particularly in the construction sector, and would replace them with unemployed locals.

On July 1, the Saudi government stopped the hiring domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia after local employers protested against conditions sought by the Asian countries, including a minimum wage of $400 a month for foreign workers.

The overseas workers' group Migrante on Monday asked Manila to focus on domestic job generation due to the shrinking labour markets and global economic slowdown.

John Monterona, Migrante's Middle East coordinator, also demanded more protection for overseas workers by stopping illegal recruitment and trafficking, and larger funds to repatriate troubled Filipino overseas workers.


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