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Tag: Saudi Arabia

Layoffs of OFWs in Saudi not due to oil price slump: labor attaches

Published by Ellen on February 15, 2016

Filipinos in Saudi renew their passports. Philippine Embassy in Riyadh.
Filipinos in Saudi renew their passports. Philippine Embassy in Riyadh.

Despite decline in global oil prices, the Saudi labor market remains stable for Filipino workers. The reported retrenchments are not due to the oil price slump in recent months, according to assessment of Saudi-based labor attaches and diplomats of the situation in the Middle East kingdom that hosts some 800,000 OFWS.

The positive assessment should calm the fears of massive retrenchment in Saudi due to the plunge of oil prices. In fact, last week Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz expressed concerns of a possible displacement some 1.5 million Filipinos classified as temporary workers in the Middle East as the global oil glut is expected to continue in the coming months with the recent lifting of the sanctions on oil-producer Iran.

A report on the OFW situation in Saudi said, the retrenchments, particularly to the employees of the Middle East construction giant Saudi Binladen Group (SBG), “are hardly traceable to declining oil prices.”

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PH should re-assess relations with Iran

Published by Ellen on January 22, 2016

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini address a news conference at the United Nations building in Vienna, Austria, January 16, 2016. © Leonhard Foeger / Reuters. Photo https://www.rt.com.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini address a news conference at the United Nations building in Vienna, Austria, January 16, 2016. © Leonhard Foeger / Reuters. Photo https://www.rt.com.

After more than two- and- half decades of suffering and enduring United States-led sanctions, Iran, one of the world’s top oil producers, is poised to rejuvenate its economy now that they can access an estimated 100 billion dollars of assets frozen since 1979 when students stormed and occupied the American Embassy in Teheran and held hostage American diplomats for 444 days following the fall of the U.S. supported Shah of Iran.

In a visit to Iran in 1989 to attend a conference on the Persian Gulf, I attended a press event where an American delegate asked an Iranian official if he could go inside the former U.S. Embassy compound which was already occupied by the Revolutionary Guards.
The Iranian official offered a deal: “We will let you visit the former U.S. Embassy compound if your government allowed us to have access to our assets in the United States.”

Continue readingPH should re-assess relations with Iran