Saudi Arabia to free 260 more jailed OFWs

June 02, 2006
Updated 03:18pm (Mla time)
Jerome Aning
Inquirer

SOME 260 overseas Filipino workers in jail in Saudi Arabia for minor offenses will be released this month and sent home, outgoing Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said.

Fifty-nine of the batch are expected to arrive before the weekend. The 201 others will arrive on June 8 or 9, Sto. Tomas told reporters Thursday.

The group is separate from the 188 Filipinos who were set free during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s state visit to the Middle East kingdom last month.

Sto. Tomas added that prior to Arroyo’s visit, the Saudi government released between January and May 207 other Filipinos facing or convicted of minor charges, mostly pertaining to moral and cultural crimes such as drinking alcohol, holding hands in public (in the case of unmarried couples), getting pregnant or being caught with a Bible or rosary.

The secretary dismissed claims that the release of Filipino prisoners was a Saudi stunt to improve its international image following the kingdom’s election in March as a member of the newly formed United Nations Human Rights Council.

The Philippines was also elected a member of the council but the election of Saudi Arabia, along with China and Cuba, was questioned by international human rights monitoring groups.

Sto. Tomas said Filipinos needed to understand that Saudi Arabia has a particular set of laws that uphold the Islamic way of life by regulating social behavior and imposing cultural norms.

“You will have to allow for cultural differences,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that just because what they’re doing is different means that they’re wrong and we’re right; there should be tolerance for other people’s beliefs.”

“We see it as a human rights violation; they see it as the enforcement of their own customs and norms,” she said.

Sto. Tomas said would-be OFWs should make an effort to get to know the culture and lifestyle in the places they would be working and decide if they would be able to bear the numerous restrictions.

She said those leaving to work abroad should pay attention during the pre-employment and pre-departure orientation seminars given by the labor department and other nongovernment organizations.

“So if you can’t live and work without drinking alcohol, you’d better not go to Saudi Arabia,” she said, citing as an example a group of Filipinos arrested for trying to make wine by fermenting grape juice in a bathtub.

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