LESS than a week before overseas Filipino workers return to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the local recruitment industry is upbeat over the coming resumption of deployment to the Middle East state.
In a statement, recruitment consultant Emmanuel Geslani said the industry is looking forward to the resumption of deployment of household service workers, construction workers, and others to Saudi Arabia.
“It’s all systems go for the POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) to start processing jobs orders for household service workers on November 7,” said Geslani.
“Construction workers and selected workers for mega recruitment companies are also expected to benefit from the start of deployment to Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Geslani said tens of thousands of OFWs are expected to benefit after their deployment was stalled since last year.
“The resumption of deployment to Saudi Arabia will certainly increase the number of deployed OFWs as more than 20,000 workers have been stranded,” he noted.
Geslani said this will also help in the recovery of the recruitment sector after more than two years of suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With the opening of the labor market in the Kingdom, the numbers are expected to rise dramatically by the start of 2023,” said Geslani.
Last September, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) announced that OFW deployment in Saudi Arabia is set to resume on November 7.
In late November 2021, then Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III imposed a deployment ban to KSA.
