Illegal Filipino women with their children claim to have been living under Kandara bridge for the past two months awaiting deportation by the Passports Department. (Saudi Gazette photo by Mohammad Mazhar Siddiqi) JEDDAH: More than 40 women and children of Filipino nationality are living in deplorable conditions under the Kandara bridge in the southwestern part of the city. Accompanied by only three or four men, these women and children are awaiting amnesty and deportation. While visiting the site Wednesday, Saudi Gazette found that these women and children have been affected by living in the open air. The heavy rains from last Thursday to Saturday made them realize the vulnerability of their situation. The water that flowed into the area forced them to retreat to a small dry piece of land under the bridge. Supplies The women claim that they have no food supplies and that they rely on passersby for meager handouts. They have a few plastic bottles that they take to the toilet of the local mosque to fill with water for drinking, they said. They have, however, received some packets of instant noodles and water from the Philippine Consulate, they added. Legal status Most of the women are runaway maids who have for various reasons fled their sponsors. They have neither Iqamas (residence permits), nor passports or any other official identification. Among them are also people who have overstayed their visit visas and are awaiting amnesty from the Saudi government's recently proposed amnesty scheme for expatriates who have overstayed in the Kingdom. “I came to Saudi Arabia four years ago. My work visa was valid for only two years. When it expired my sponsor promised to renew it but he didn't. Instead he kept me on the job for another two years. I had no choice but to keep working, now I'm fed up and I can't take it any longer. I have decided to leave,” said Moses Vieolaren, a Filipino national who used to work at a popular Jeddah restaurant. He added, “My sponsor refuses to return my passport and wants me to pay SR 5,000 to get it back. I am waiting for the deportation department to pick me up and send me home.” Some of the women claim that they have been under the bridge for the last two months. An anxious mother said, “In the last two weeks, children here are beginning to have skin ailments and infections. We don't understand why it's taking the consulate so long to send us back to our own homes.” The Official Consul in-charge at the Consulate of the Philippines in Jeddah Leo Tito L. Ausan said that consulate personnel are aware of the issue of illegal workers staying under Kandara Bridge. He told Saudi Gazette that an official consulate team visited the location on Jan. 11 but did not find anyone there. “A few days later, I sent some of my deputies to check the situation there again and they found about 20 Filipino women there. I instructed them to register their names so that arrangements could be made for them to be deported as soon as possible after coordination with the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Passport Department here,” Ausan said. He added that the workers wanted to force the issue in order to be deported as soon as possible. He said that after the royal amnesty was announced in September of last year authorizing the deportation of those who have overstayed Haj, Umrah and visitors' visas, many illegal workers who had run away from their sponsors visited the consulate as they thought that the royal decree included them, but unfortunately it did not. “We have provided shelter, food and water to those who have visited the office of the labor attaché,” Ausan said. Last year the consulate deported 2,400 illegal workers in coordination with the Saudi Passport Department. “The process of deportation usually takes a long time and we have to wait,” he added.
