Work to ease OFWs’ plight, solons urged

By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—An organization of overseas Filipino workers on Saturday called on the senators going to the Inter-Parliamentary Union gathering in South Africa to put their trip to good use by calling on their foreign counterparts to improve the conditions of OFWs languishing in jails around the world.

“We expect from our attending senators to the IPU assembly to forward this particular concern of the migrant sector,” Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said in an e-mailed statement from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Monterona identified the countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain as having poor provisions for OFWs accused of immigration-related offenses and other more serious crimes.

According to Monterona, there are more than 500 OFWs in the deportation center in Jeddah. This is in addition to the 145 OFWs reported stranded in Jeddah who caught the public’s attention after many of them were reported to be living under a bridge in the Saudi city. About 40 of the 145 have since returned to Manila.

The 188th IPU assembly takes place on April 13-18 in Cape Town, South Africa. The meeting will tackle issues concerning migrant workers, people trafficking, human rights, xenophobia and humanitarian crises in Sudan and Palestine.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. and former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. lead the Filipino contingent to the biannual meeting.

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