The Philippines’ Overseas Workers Are Left Stranded Amid COVID-19

Tens of thousands of Filipino workers abroad are desperate to return home after losing their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, including more than 23,000 in Saudi Arabia, some of whom have been seen on video scavenging for food in a supermarket.

Over 400 Filipinos abroad have died from COVID-19 and thousands more have been infected, sparking outrage among migrant workers and rights groups who say the government has failed to keep promises to financially assist unemployed workers and arrange for flights back to the Philippines.

According to the migrant advocacy group Migrante International, displaced workers in Saudi Arabia were driven to scavenge for food from garbage bins after being told they did not qualify for government cash assistance. After a video of the workers seeking food went viral, some were called to a local police station for questioning, the group said in a statement.

Several workers said at a June 19 press conference that their employers have refused to return their passports and allow them to leave, instead forcing them to pay around $4,000 for exit visas. Others became unemployed after their contracts expired but have not received cash relief or plane tickets back to the Philippines.

Those workers who have been repatriated to the Philippines faced packed quarantine facilities in Manila and are being asked to quarantine for another 14 days after arriving in their home provinces. Last month, the chief implementer of the country’s COVID-19 task force said facilities could become “overwhelmed” in the coming months.

About 50,000 foreign workers have been repatriated since the coronavirus pandemic began, leading government officials to struggle to quarantine and test each worker.

In June, Philippines Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on Twitter that a Filipino woman working on a cruise ship docked in Barbados had taken her own life while awaiting repatriation, making her the second overseas worker to die in such circumstances.

Locsin said the woman, Mariah Jocson, “committed suicide in her cabin in the ship where she’s had to stay because repatriation flights back to the Philippines have been suspended again.”

“I know our quarantine facilities are jam-packed; just don’t know why,” he said.

Frustrations boiled over in late May after migrant workers already repatriated to Manila reported being kept in quarantine facilities for more than 14 days due to a lack of available tests.

Early in June, the COVID-19 task force said it would ensure workers stuck in the capital would be allowed to travel to their provinces within five days of their arrival. But many workers have remained stuck in Manila due to a lack of flights from the capital to other areas of the country.

Other provinces have also reported increases in new COVID-19 cases, raising fears that returning workers and residents are carrying the virus despite being required to test negative before boarding a flight out of Manila.

The southern provinces of Leyte and Negros Occidental, which had both seen low rates of transmission, said they believed most newly reported COVID-19 cases came from returnees.

Remote and mountainous areas of Luzon province have also seen upticks in coronavirus cases, raising fears of a second wave after the city of Baguio saw its total cases jump from 57 to 101 within a few days in June, the city’s mayor said.

An estimated 10 to 12 million Filipinos work abroad, many as caregivers, nurses, or factory workers. They sent between $33.47 billion and $35.1 billion in remittances home to the Philippines in 2019, according to the World Bank, making up just under 10 percent of the country’s GDP.

But the pandemic has led to many losing their jobs or becoming unable to find new work after finishing their contracts, taking a severe economic toll on the Philippines in the process.

In Saudi Arabia, workers said pleas for help to the Philippine embassy’s overseas labor office have gone unanswered. At the June 19 press conference, a cleaner employed along with 300 other Filipino women said they had not been paid their salaries since March 1 and had only received company allowances.

Many workers sign what are known as “no work, no pay” contracts, leaving them unable to find new income or send money to their families.

Joanna Concepcion, chairperson of Migrante International, said in a statement the government should provide food, cash relief, medical assistance, and free flights home to displaced foreign workers, all of which have been hard to obtain.

“[Foreign workers] are rummaging through trash bins just to find food,” Conception said. “So where are the promised food and financial assistance?”