Press Release
PR-054-2015
16 April 2015

Alleged Delay in the Processing of Documents
for Filipino Household Service Workers

(Riyadh, 16 April 2015) – The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh has noted that one major English-language Saudi newspaper recently ran a story on the supposed delay in the processing of documents for Filipino household service workers (HSWS) “due to the inability of Filipino foreign missions in the Kingdom to process visas in a timely manner.” The report likewise added that “Philippine missions in the Kingdom only accept five visa requests per week, which hinders the issuance of a large amount of visas.”

The Embassy takes strong exception to these contentions and underscores the fact that the processing by the Embassy of documents for the deployment of Filipino workers is in line with the requirements of Philippine law.

The Embassy will not allow any external entity – especially the private sector – to dictate or impugn the internal systems or timeframes by which Philippine government regulations are applied on documents to be used for the deployment of Filipino workers abroad.

If Philippine regulations are not convenient for Saudi recruitment agencies or their clients, they should begin to consider hiring HSWs from other countries to meet the demand of their customers. (END)