Saudi Arabia second largest country to hire Filipino workers

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) wait outside before boarding a flight at an international airport in Manila, in this January 12, 2015 file photo. (REUTERS)

RIYADH: The Saudi Embassy in Manila issues at least 1,000 work visas daily for Filipino applicants, thus making the Kingdom second country in the world after the US that issues work visas to Philippines in such a large number, said a diplomat at the embassy.

The envoy rubbished a report published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the number of visa applications has gone down.
Dr. Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Bussairy, the Saudi ambassador to the Philippines, said in a statement to the newspaper that the need for Filipino workers in his country is stable despite the continuing decline of oil prices in global markets over the recent period.
Al-Bussairy made the comments on the occasion of delivering 100 tons of dates as gift from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to the Filipino people.
The envoy said there are more than one million citizens of Philippine nationality working in Saudi Arabia; and they live in a stable and secure environment, stressing that the Saudi government respects their efforts in participating in the economic cycle of the country.
The statistics site of Philippine hiring management for overseas countries said that Filipino workers’ remittances increased to $2.42 billion during March of last year increased compared to $2.39 billion during the same period last year.
According to the World Bank’s latest statistics in the field of remittances across the world, the US came in first place with $56.3 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia ($36.9 billion), Russia ($32.6 billion), Switzerland ($24.7 billion) and Germany ($20.8 billion).
The World Bank report showed that India is one of the largest countries with shares of these remittances, where it has 20 million citizens working abroad for $69 billion; China has $64 billion; and the Philippines $28 billion.
It is expected that remittances will increase by 4 percent during 2016 due to the stability and the continuation of Filipinos working in their jobs and the quality of skilled jobs where they work, with an estimated Filipino workforce of about ten million worldwide.
Most Filipino workers working in Saudi Arabia are concentrated in nursing jobs, domestic help, jobs in petroleum companies, and other technical jobs.