For months, a number of Filipino migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have been out of work and stuck in camps with no water or electricity. Their wives are calling on government to bring them home.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The Abrio family did not think twice about pawning their motorcycle so the head of the family, Joel, can afford the requirements needed to work abroad. It was, after all, a necessary sacrifice for the beginning of their family’s many good dreams: to afford quality education for their children, a comfortable life, and a house of their own.
But their dreams were shattered. Last year, Joel, an overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia, stopped receiving his salary as officials claimed that their company is “folding up.” His wife Elvira Abrio has gone from one government agency to another, asking to bring him home.
But she eventually got tired of all the empty promises she was given.
Yesterday, March 16, Abrio joined the campout outside the office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Pasay City led by Migrante Partylist to call on the government to look into the plight of the stranded OFWs. Her husband is still stranded in Saudi, waiting for his unpaid wages and end-of-services benefits.
Abrio sold their family’s motorcycle after her husband learned that he could be repatriated if he has money to buy his own ticket. After sending the money, Joel learned that his iqama, or work permit, has already expired. Without an exit visa, Abrio said, it would be difficult for her husband to be repatriated.
No crisis?
Nancy Arcaya’s husband Freddie has been an OFW in Saudi Arabia for the past three decades. But Arcaya said this is the first time that her husband has encountered a problem like this.
“Bagsak na daw ang kompanya,” (They said the company is bankrupt) Arcaya said when Bulatlat asked why her husband was not receiving his salary.
The Philippine government has denied that there is a looming crisis in Saudi Arabia that is affecting millions of OFWs there. Saudi has remained one of the top destinations of OFWs since the implementation of the Labor Export Policy some 40 years ago.
Migrante International campaign coordinator Sarah Maramag said that other heavy industries in Saudi Arabia have been affected with the ongoing oil crisis. She added that apart from this, Saudi has also been facing a political crisis since the Arab Spring and the looming wars between Middle East countries.
The Migrante chapter in Saudi Arabia has earlier warned that at least 50,000 Filipino migrant workers there who would be immediately affected by the crisis. But the Philippine government has repeatedly dismissed these reports and referred to the migrant rights group’s statements as “exaggerated.”
Arcaya said one of her children, a freshman college student, was forced to stop her studies because of what happened. “It has been very hard, especially to the children,” she said.
Dire conditions
Roxanne Amaro, one of those who joined today’s campout in OWWA, said her husband Domingo decided to work abroad because of the lack of job security in the country. Here in the country, her husband worked as a construction worker, which paid the minimum wage.
But Amaro said she always worried after her husband’s safety. She said that not a day would pass without an accident in the construction site leaving Domingo’s co-workers injured; others have died.
“Sometimes my husband would go home with a wound from objects that fell in the site. It got me very worried,” she said.
When the couple discussed their options, Amaro said she eventually agreed to her husband’s proposal to work abroad. They incurred a debt worth P30,000 ($645) for Domingo’s requirements, which they were able to eventually pay.
Domingo received P17,000 ($365) per month, nearly double the pay that he was receiving back here in the country. Amaro said that everything seemed fine until July 2015 when her husband stopped receiving his salary.
“At one point, my husband had no choice but to eat moldy bread, just to have something in his stomach,” Amaro said.
She also shared harrowing tales of recently repatriated OFWs who said there was no electricity or water supply in other migrant workers camp in Saudi. She added that migrant workers there have no other choice but to use toilet bowls no matter how dirty it is.
Amaro said they have not been able to pay their house rent for three months now. She said that if their landlord has not been understanding of their predicament, she and her two children would have nowhere else to go.
“They passed me on from one government agency to another. They made me wait and I was told to ask for updates on my husband’s case after a week, 15 days and even a month. The ink in the papers they gave me has already faded. Still, my husband is not in anyway closer to being repatriated,” she said.
Meanwhile, Maramag said they have received reports that there are Filipino workers in Saudi who are receiving their salaries but are being subjected to long working hours for the same pay.
Finding new ‘friends’ in the struggle
Despite the hardships they are encountering, Amaro said, they still find enough reasons to smile, laugh, and look at the positive side of their struggle to get their loved ones repatriated from Saudi Arabia.
“If we would whine and dwell on the negative things, we might go crazy,” she jested.
Amaro said she found good friends among relatives of other OFWs. Their shared pain and longing, she added, has given her strength to carry on what is yet to be a long fight.
Amaro, Abrio and Arcaya only met each other while they were going from one government office to another. It was then that they realized that their husbands were working in the same company. They have been inseparable for the past months.
“Our anger and despair have led us to Migrante,” quipped Arcaya.
Abrio’s husband Joel met a Migrante International member from Al Khobar. It was through him that they brought their case before the migrant rights group. They have not looked the other way since then.
With the supporters pouring into the campout, Amaro said that she is even more determined to fight now that they have found more supporters.
Amaro added, “I am giving this government no deadline to bring back our loved ones. If they can do it now, later and tomorrow, then it would be so much better. I hope that it would be very soon so we can start our lives anew.” 
