DMW considers bringing back chartered flights for Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia

The Department of Migrant Workers is considering bringing back chartered flights for Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia while direct Riyadh-to-Manila flights remain suspended, and says about 4,000 of the workers given cash aid since October are airport personnel.

The Philippine government is considering bringing back chartered flights for Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia if more of them are hit by the cancellation of direct Riyadh-to-Manila flights, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac said at a press briefing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, The Global Filipino Magazine reported on 12 November.

Cacdac said the government will keep paying for commercial flights for workers who want to come home, and the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) is preparing for more requests as Christmas gets closer. According to the figures reported by The Global Filipino Magazine, the DMW and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) have helped 5,870 overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia so far, 5,795 of them with financial assistance, and 940 have been flown home.

Aid for airport workers

Flight attendants and other Filipino airport personnel account for about 4,000 of the workers who have received government cash aid since attacks on the kingdom started in October, the DMW said. In a GMA News 24 Oras report, Cacdac said Riyadh's airport had been closed for three weeks and reopened a week earlier, but flights were partial and there were still no Riyadh-Manila flights.

He said the government is helping airport workers whose jobs have been stalled, naming ground crew, maintenance crew, duty-free staff, coffee shop and concessionaire workers, and even flight attendants. GMA News also reported that the DMW has signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Transport Workers Federation to help strengthen protection for Filipinos.

Why workers still need help getting home

Cacdac said requests to go home come from many kinds of workers: those due for a holiday, those who have finished their contracts or had them cut short, and those who are ill or distressed. As long as Riyadh-to-Manila flights stay closed, he said, there will always be Filipinos who want to go home, and the assistance will continue.

Without a direct route, many workers have had to leave from other cities. The Global Filipino Magazine, citing Khaleej Times, said the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and Migrant Workers Offices arranged land transfers to Dammam and Al Qassim as alternative departure points, and that Philippine Airlines extended its cancellation of Manila-Riyadh flights until 29 November.

The disruption follows Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia. GMA News reported that parts of an oil company building in Riyadh were damaged after two Houthi missiles were intercepted, with no one hurt, and quoted an overseas Filipino worker identified only as Dan who said he was still scared because no one knows where the next explosion will hit.

Subscribe to newsletter