POEA: Saudi Arabia remains top Filipino workers destination
Veronica Uy
INQ7.net
THE KINGDOM of Saudi Arabia remains the top destination of overseas Filipino workers, employing 55,957 or 27 percent of the 209,293 land-based workers registered with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration during the first quarter of the year.
The number is slightly lower than the 58,355 OFWs deployed to the oil-rich Middle East country during the same period last year, according to POEA records.
Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said Saudi Arabia has traditionally been the top OFW destination because of its many "massive development projects" since the 1970s.
Next on the list of top overseas Filipino destinations are Hong Kong with 28,006 or 13.4 percent of land-based workers, United Arab Emirates with 19,817 or 9.47 percent, Japan with 17,213 or 8.22 percent, Taiwan with 12,222 or 5.8 percent, Kuwait with 10,216 or five percent, Singapore with 8,660 or four percent, and Qatar with 7,193 or 3.4 percent.
Qatar also posted the highest increase of OFW deployment at 50 percent. During the same period last year, the country had only 4,793 Filipino workers.
Other countries with marked increases in entry of land-based OFWs are: Bahrain, 49 percent (from 1,810 to 2,693); Kuwait, 24 percent (8,213 to 10,216); Malaysia, 21 percent (1,748 to 2,114); UAE, 15.4 percent (17,172 to 19,817); United States, 13.6 percent (1,074 to 1,220); and Singapore, 12.8 percent (7,678 to 8,660).
Sto. Tomas said increases in these countries more than made up for the decline in Saudi, Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, and Libya.
She said the net five percent increase in deployment is equivalent to 209,293 OFWs deployed during the first quarter of this year, compared to 199,272 for the same period last year.
