MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will be assisting overseas Filipino workers who have been displaced by the clashes in Sudan by looking at job opportunities back home and in Saudi Arabia.
The Department of Migrant Workers said it has already tapped the Ministry of Human Resource and Social Development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to help Filipinos.
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“We are working it out with our partners in Saudi Arabia if there's a possibility because most of the workers based in Sudan are skilled professionals,” Migrant Workers Susan “Toots” Ople said in a press briefing streamed online on Tuesday.
"We are trying to explore the possibility of temporary jobs in Saudi Arabia, if that would be allowed by their government."
One of the exit points the government is looking at for Filipino evacuees is through land travel from Khartoum to Port Sudan, where they can hop on a ship to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
While the government is also working on job placements for those who will be returning back home, Ople said they understand that some OFWs wish to remain overseas to wait for the situation in Sudan to ease.
Latest figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs show that the embassy in Egypt logged around 740 Filipinos in Sudan, of which 350 have requested for repatriation.
The first batch of 50 evacuees were already on their way to Egypt as of 8 p.m. on Monday.
Meanwhile, the DMW kickstarted the job matching after getting the OFWs’ profiles from the DFA and through the Overseas Welfare Workers Association, in case they wish to return home. Ople said returning OFWs will also receive financial aid on top of the $200 financial assistance given to them upon crossing borders.
“I’m not at liberty to announce right now how much the financial package for their families will be since we want to focus first on the workers that will be crossing the border,” Ople said.