PHL Embassy: Reports about 180 OFWs on hunger strike in Saudi not true

Philippine officials on Monday belied reports claiming that 180 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have staged a hunger strike in Saudi Arabia to protest against "illegal recruitment, abusive employers and government neglect." According to a news release of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, Ambassador Ezzedin Tago said it was not true that the OFWs started having a hunger strike on July 19. “The truth is there was no hunger strike in Al Swayeh. The truth is there was no hunger strike by the Al Sabillah workers in Al-Jouf,” Tago said. "Stop work protests" However, he confirmed that 98 workers of Al-Swayeh held a "Stop work" protest against the non-payment of salary, lack of end-of-service benefit, and the non-issuance of exit visas to the workers who have finished their contracts. Labor Attache Albert Valenciano added, “there are no details of the cases of the workers in the other companies.” The embassy said Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Riyadh are already attending to the case of the Al-Swayeh workers. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration were instructed by the Labor Department to coordinate their action to facilitate the provision of the plane tickets to the concerned workers. The Embassy said it has also extended the validity of the passports of 32 of the workers free-of-charge. Earlier, Tago wrote Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud twice requesting for immediate assistance to the workers and he brought the matter to the attention of the Emir who had set up a specialized inter-agency committee to solve the issue. Meanwhile, Valenciano said POLO-Riyadh provided the workers with medical assistance and food supplies.- VVP, GMA News

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