The Philippines halted the deployment of workers to Saudi Arabia after it received reports that employers were making them pay for COVID-19 testing, quarantine, and insurance upon arrival in the Kingdom.
In an order dated May 27, 2021, Filipino Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello said the ministry will issue an official statement on resumption of deployment "after this issue is clarified accordingly".
It was not clear so far how many Filipinos would be directly affected by this decision.
Saudi Arabia was the most preferred destination for Filipino workers in 2019, government data showed, as the Kingdom hosted one out of five Filipinos who landed jobs abroad during that year.
More than a million Filipinos work in the Kingdom, either in construction, as domestic help, or nursing.
The remittances transferred by Filipinos in Saudi Arabia reached $1.8 billion in 2020, indicating that the Kingdom is an important source of foreign exchange inflows and key driver of Philippines' economy.
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