The Kandara flyover has been used by overstaying workers to get the attention of the Saudi authorities. (SG photo by Mohammad Mazhar Siddiqi) CASIANO MAYOR JR. OVER the past six months, the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah has been helping the Saudi authorities in the repatriation of hundreds of Filipinos who had overstayed in the Kingdom long after their residence permits or iqama had expired. The overstayers, mostly maids, had either run away or were abandoned by their employers. “Most of them were maids but there were also other kinds of workers – heavy equipment operators, truck drivers, family drivers, among others,” said Pilar Millano, who has struck a friendship with some of the runaway workers who camped out under the Kandara bridge before they were repatriated to the Philippines in February. The mass repatriation of overstaying Filipino expatriates started in the later part of last year after the Saudi government announced in September an amnesty for Muslim pilgrims who overstayed their visas for the Haj season when they found work in the Kingdom. Filipino Consul Leo Tito Ausan Jr. said that when the Saudi government announced the amnesty on Sept. 23, many Filipino runaway workers came to the consulate to inquire whether they were covered by the amnesty. Ausan said that although it was clear to the consulate that the amnesty was for the overstaying pilgrims, it sought clarification from the Saudi authorities whether it also covered the runaway workers, many of whom were Christians. While waiting for the response of the Saudi authorities, the consulate advised the runaway workers who came there to inquire to file their applications for voluntary repatriation. Meanwhile, at the foot of the flyover highway on Kandara road in the southern side of Jeddah, a growing number of overstaying Filipino workers started to swell. The flyover highway, which has become known to the Filipino expatriates as the Kandara bridge, has been used by overstaying workers, who wish to be sent back to their home countries, to get the attention of the Saudi authorities. “The Kandara phenomenon has become a symbolic act after overstaying workers converged (there) to attract the attention of the Saudi government to apprehend them for deportation to their home countries,” said Ausan. Although the Saudi authorities did not respond to the amnesty query of the Philippine consulate, Ausan said the Saudi government picked up those who had converged at the Kandara bridge and took them to the Haj terminal near the Jeddah international airport for deportation. According to Ausan, the Saudi government shouldered the cost of the workers' deportation, including airfare and their stay at the Haj terminal but that it had lately advised the consulate that it would stop shouldering the deportation cost by March 23. The consulate used to pay SR10 per person for the workers' stay at the Haj terminal during the previous mass deportations, Ausan said, adding that the Saudi government has informed the mission that the fee would be increased to SR15 per person after March 23. The Philippine consulate said in its website that some groups in the Filipino community in Jeddah have volunteered to help raise funds for the deportation of the remaining overstaying workers who want to go home. But the issue has been used by the highly politicized militant group Migrante as fodder to criticize the Philippine diplomatic mission in the Kingdom and the Philippine government back home. The overstaying Filipino workers, including women, who had taken shelter under the Kandara bridge came not only from Jeddah and other parts of the Western Province which falls under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah, but also from Riyadh and the Eastern province which is under the jurisdiction of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh. Many of the women had children born out of official wedlock. Jeddah, close to both the holy cities of Makkah and Madina, has become the destination of Filipino workers who want to be sent back to the Philippines because previous officials at the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah often utilized the Saudi government's repatriation program for Filipino pilgrims, who overstayed their pilgrim's visa, also for the repatriation of the Christian workers. It has become known as the “backdoor”, which Consul General Ezzedin Tago refused to use for the repatriation of runaway and overstaying workers shortly after he came to Jeddah in 2007. Although most overstaying workers, particularly the maids, runaway from their employers because they had been maltreated or abused, there were also many others who left their sponsors when they found better-paying jobs. Oscar Cruz, who went to the consulate in late February to seek repatriation, said he left his former employer, Chinese Dragon Coffee Shop in Jeddah, for a better pay. Cruz said in an interview that he was paid SR1,200 by the Chinese Dragon when he arrived in Jeddah 10 years ago. He left Chinese Dragon when he was offered a higher pay and better treatment by another coffee shop and had since been working illegally after the expiration of his iqama or residence permit, which could only be renewed by his previous employer. He was receiving SR 1,800 when he decided to seek voluntary repatriation because he had missed his family after 10 years of separation. Since September, the Saudi government has deported more than 1,000 overstaying Filipino workers. As of Feb. 27, consulate officials said there were still 687 Filipino runaway workers waiting for repatriation at the Haj terminal near the international airport in the northern side of Jeddah. “It was down to 489 as of Feb. 25. But the figure went up to 687 on Feb. 27,“ said Ausan in an interview at the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah on the last day of February. The consulate, he said, has listed more than 5,000 workers who had volunteered to be sent home but many of them seemed to have changed their mind during the follow up calls from the consulate staff. Ausan said many of those who have changed their mind told the staff that they still wanted to go on working and would seek repatriation later. “Some say that they want to be repatriated next year or on any other time they wish, as if it is that easy,” said Ausan. “This is giving us a problem, but how can you force them to go home?” Some of those who sought voluntary repatriation, he said, even tried to give the impression that they did not come to the consulate at all. The situation put to sharp focus the harsh reality back home that drove – and continuous to drive – millions of Filipinos to seek greener pastures in foreign lands. Pilar Mellano, who still has contacts with some of the repatriated workers, said that after seeing their families many of them were applying for new passports and hopping from one job placement agency to another looking for overseas employment. “Reklamo sila na hirap daw ng buhay sa atin. (They complain of the difficult life back home),” said Millano, who keeps contact with repatriated friends, mostly women, through text messaging. The women, she said, were former maids who ran away from their employers because, despite their long working hours, they were often given only kubos for meals or food that their employers could not finish The Kandara bridge phenomenon has become an on-and-off affair in the Kingdom. Ausan said the Philippine consulate has not seen any definite pattern on when and what drives the overstaying Filipino workers to converge together under the Kandara flyover highway at any given time. “There are many factors. News or even rumors that the (Philippine) president will come are among them,” said Ausan, adding that the overstaying Filipino workers who wanted to go home would often exploit any possible opportunity to get the attention of both the Saudi government and the Philippine diplomatic missions. “The Kandara phenomenon will always be with us for as long as we have overstaying workers out there.” Consulate officials said that rumors of a royal pardon or of an arrival of some Filipino officials were sometimes spread by unscrupulous people, including some Filipinos seeking to make money from gullible overstayers who are desperate to go home. The consulate's official website had identified two Filipinos who had duped a number of overstaying workers coming from far away province by pretending that they had friends at the ‘Jawazat', the Saudi immigration and deportation office, who would pick them up at the Kandara bridge. The identities and photos of the suspected swindlers are posted on the consulate's website. Between 2004 and the current mass repatriation, there had been at least three waves of mass deportation after big groups of Filipinos who were desperate to go home converged under the Kandara bridge. Ausan, who had been posted in South Africa and Berlin in German before his diplomatic assignment in Jeddah in mid-2008, admitted that there are more problems in Saudi Arabia but said he finds his posting in the Kingdom to be more challenging. “The greater are the challenges, the greater is your sense of fulfillment.”
