Photo courtesy of Migrante International

Around 100 overseas Filipino workers have camped out under a bridge in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

According to Garry Martinez, chairperson of Migrante International, the stranded OFWs are sleeping under the Khandara Bridge in Jeddah.

“Panibagong batch ng mga kababayan na natangal sa work, tumakas sa kanilang mga employer at humihingi ng tulong mula sa guberno,” Martinez said in an interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com on Friday.

According to Martinez, their group was able to document some 37 OFWs, five of them are women, who sleep under the bridge.

Most of the stranded OFWs were employed as construction workers while the women worked as domestic helpers.

“May ilang din mga bata na natutulog sa ilalim ng tulay,” Martinez said, adding that the number of Filipinos camping out under the bridge swells to at least 100 at daytime.

Martinez added that their chapter in the Middle East have already informed the Philippine embassy about the plight of the stranded OFWs.

They urged the embassy to immediately extend assistance to the OFWs to prevent the situation from worsening.
 
“Huwag ng palalain. Sa DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) naman, huwag nang mag dalawang-isip na mag-repatriate, undocumented man o hindi. Tulungan na ng gubyerno, lalo na sa panahon ng lumalalang krisis,” said Martinez.

Members of the Migrante chapter in the Middle East took the initiative to help the OFWs by providing them with food and blankets.

“Aggressive ang labor marketing, dapat ganun din pagdating sa pagtulong sa mga OFWs,” he said.