DMW whitelists, blacklists recruitment agencies as KSA deployment reopens

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Tuesday said it is creating a whitelist and blacklist of recruitment agencies as the deployment of Filipino workers to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) reopens.

At a televised public briefing, DMW Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the Department would only allow whitelisted agencies to recruit overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to KSA.

“Yung nabanggit kong whitelisting at blacklisting ng mga recruitment agencies ay itinatalaga na namin para siguradong yung a-apply-an ng mga OFWs natin ay hindi nabibilang sa blacklist at sa halip ay nabibilang sa whitelist,” he said.

(We are already categorizing recruitment agencies under whitelists and blacklists to ensure that OFWs would not apply to agencies that belong to the blacklist but the whitelist.)

The first batch of OFWs since the reopening will be deployed to KSA soon, Cacdac added.

Cacdac said this was one of the changes made after the Philippines lifted its ban on the deployment of OFWs to KSA on November 7.

Last year, the Philippine government imposed a deployment ban on household service workers to KSA due to unpaid salaries of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Saudi Arabia.

The KSA recently committed to allocate some 2 billion riyals for the unpaid salaries of some 10,000 overseas Filipinos employed by construction companies that declared bankruptcy. — DVM, GMA Integrated News