THE Philippine Embassy in Riyadh facilitated the vaccination of 308 distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) at its shelters in Riyadh from Sept. 12 to 14, 2021.

The Saudi Ministry of Health assigned four staff, including one doctor, to administer the Covid-19 vaccines to the distressed OFWs in the shelters, at the request of the Philippine government.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. requested the vaccination of all Filipino shelter wards when he received a telephone call from Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Ahmed AlJubeir last August 2021.

Philippine Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Adnan Alonto took the opportunity to express appreciation to the host country for promoting the health and welfare of migrant workers and their families.

The Philippine government maintains resource centers in Saudi Arabia and other countries to provide temporary shelters to Filipino workers who are in distress.

The Covid-19 pandemic slowed down global economic activity at an unprecedented scale, and migrant workers and their families were among the hardest hit.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported thousands of OFWs lost their jobs and returned home. This consequently contributed to the increase in the country’s unemployment rate and restrained the inflow of remittances.

As the health crisis rages on, OFWs continue to face uncertainty over their employment prospects.

The POEA report stated total OFW deployment dropped from 2.2 million in 2019 to 549,800 in 2020, contracting by 74.5 percent. This was a considerable departure from the average annual deployment growth rate of 4.6 percent (equivalent to some 1.9 million workers) from 2010 to 2019.

Of the total deployment in 2020, land-based workers accounted for 78.6 percent while 39.5 percent were sea-based. New hires numbered about 100,300.

The decrease in the number of deployed workers was mainly attributed to the travel restrictions to address the rising transmission rate of Covid-19.

Immediately after the World Health Organization’s declaration of a pandemic, the Philippine government suspended land, domestic air and sea travels.

It also issued a ban, specifically on the deployment of healthcare workers, to beef up the number of medical professionals in the country.

The government placed a deployment cap of 5,000 healthcare workers (per annum), much lower than the annual average of 16,651 nurses deployed from 2016 to 2019.

This has since been lifted last December 2020. While the easing of lockdowns in some countries allowed for a slight recovery of deployment, the figures remained subdued.

As of March 10, 2021, about 99 nations permitted entry of OFWs to their countries, subject to flight availability, visa regulations and medical protocols. Some 104 countries still restrict the entry of Filipinos, 77 of which provide exceptions to individuals with employment contracts.