WNAM REPORT: With many new jobs suspended across the Middle East and flights canceled due to the US-Israeli war on Iran, skilled Filipinos have kept on looking for employment in Saudi Arabia, saying they were confident in their safety.
After most Gulf Cooperation Council countries closed their airspace on Feb. 28 following the attacks on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on US assets across the region, overseas Filipino workers bound for the region were unable to fly there due to flight restrictions.
The unstable security situation also prompted some Filipinos in the Middle East to seek government assistance to return home, with more than 5,400 repatriated since.
But Saudi Arabia continued to serve as a primary, high-demand job destination for Filipinos, whose interest to work in the Kingdom persisted despite the war on Iran.
“We are deploying highly skilled workers like nurses,” Loreto Soriano, executive director of the Recruitment Industry Crisis Coordination Council, told Arab News.
“We have no problem convincing them. They are the ones asking us ‘when is our flight?’”
Saudi Arabia hosts the largest number of overseas Filipino workers and was their top destination in 2024, according to the latest government data.
Almost 22 percent of Filipinos, or over 480,000, who sought work abroad chose the Kingdom that year, driven in part by the Saudi Vision 2030 economic diversification program, while tax-free salaries made it easier for many of them to save and send money home.
The significant presence of Filipinos in the Kingdom also helps in addressing worries that had been amplified in the media and keep new hires undeterred from working there.
“Every Filipino knows somebody in Saudi Arabia who will tell you the truth, and they will not believe what is in the newspaper,” Soriano said.
Krystelle Pace, a registered nurse from Sulu, is one of them. She will fly to Riyadh next week to work at the Prince Sultan Military Medical City.
“This will be my first time to work abroad. I’m aware of the situation and I still want to go,” she said.
“I’m confident that I will be safe, and that the Saudi government can protect us … My sister’s mother-in-law is there, and they’re doing fine.”
Mikhail Lyndon Lacanale, who will be working at the same medical complex, has only returned to the Philippines to transfer from another job in the Kingdom.
“Saudi is good,” he said. “They take care of workers and are concerned about safety. I feel safe there.”
Lacanale is one of the many Filipinos who wants to rejoin the Saudi job market while thousands of workers in other Gulf countries have sought repatriation.
Josine Irma, who had worked in the Kingdom before, wants to go back now as working there as a medical professional was for her a better option than a similar job in the Philippines.
“I’ve experienced living and working in the Middle East and seen how well they take care of people,” she said. “It’s safe there. Honestly, I even feel safer there than here.”
