EMPLOYMENT-OVERSEAS: MANILA- Palace: Assist repatriation of 282 dead OFWs in Saudi

“The Palace commiserates with the families and loved ones of the 282 overseas Filipino workers who died in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement yesterday.

The labor department had earlier said the remains of 50 OFWs who died due to coronavirus-related illnesses would be buried in Saudi Arabia following the Middle Eastern country’s customs. The rest will be brought back to the Philippines.

“We offer our prayers to the deceased and to those they left behind,” Roque said.

Saudi Arabia has asked Philippine officials to send home the bodies of OFWs because cremation is not allowed in the Middle Eastern country.

The Philippine government’s pandemic task force decided to have the bodies of those who caught the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) buried in Saudi Arabia.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said during an interview on dzMM TeleRadyo that Saudi King Salman gave the Philippines 72 hours to bring home the bodies of the Filipinos or decide to bury them in Saudi Arabia.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration will arrange three chartered flights for the repatriation of the remains of the OFWs.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. met last week with Saudi Ambassador Abdullah Al Bussairy to discuss the death of another overseas Filipino worker due to COVID-19 and the impact of the pandemic on Filipinos in Saudi Arabia.

The overseas Filipino community in Saudi Arabia is the biggest in the Middle East and one of the largest in the world.

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On Twitter, Locsin said he sought the assistance of the ambassador to bring back the remains of a Filipino whose death was blamed on his employer’s alleged negligence.

Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Adnan Alonto said he would meet with officials of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development of Saudi Arabia to raise the case of Marcelo Tanyag III, a water treatment operator, who experienced COVID-19 symptoms on May 23.

Tanyag’s Egyptian employer allegedly refused to follow a doctor’s advice to bring him to hospital for treatment.

An organization of OFWs in the Middle East slammed Alonto for describing as “theatrics” a report about jobless Filipinos who resorted to scavenging for food.

Migrante-Middle East said Alonto is wrong and out of touch with the situation of OFWs.

It added that Alonto should talk to OFWs to know the real situation, instead of dismissing and insulting them for trying survive.

Meanwhile, 277 distressed OFWs from North Africa, mostly displaced by shutdown of companies due to the pandemic, will arrive today, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said.

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The repatriates, including OFW dependents from Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, will arrive at 4:40 p.m.

The workers were employed in the oil industry and medical establishments, with some having finished their contracts while most were displaced due to the temporary shutdown of companies. Pia Lee-Brago