Migrante Warns Oil Price Plunge Spells Trouble for OFWs
MANILA – An alliance of Filipino migrants on Sunday warned that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East may lose their jobs due to the falling prices of oil products, a major income source of Arab countries.
Migrante Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said many Filipinos working for private contractors in Saudi Arabia recently received a termination notice of their work contract.
Monterona said the Kingdom’s s budget cuts and other austerity measures have negatively affected infrastructure and economic development projects of the government.
The Saudi government has employed economic reform programs in response to their growing budget deficit.
Migrante Middle East added that several OFWs in Qatar also sought help after they were dismissed from their jobs due to government budget cuts.
The group urged the government to create programs to solve the supposedly impending mass retrenchment of OFWs.
– dzMM, 24 January 2016