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- Dubai 04:32 05:49 12:21 15:48 18:47 20:04
An Asian labourer looks up as he works at the construction site of a building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia August 4, 2016. (Reuters)
The Philippines said Saturday it would within days send government missions to Saudi Arabia to help thousands of Filipinos in the kingdom after the plunge in oil prices.
The first batch of officials would fly to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday "to provide immediate humanitarian, legal, and other consular assistance to the overseas Filipino workers in camps across Saudi Arabia," a foreign department statement said.
The immediate target is to bring aid to "those without food and in dire need of medical care and other support services", it added.
"A high level delegation of senior Philippine government officials will also be sent soonest to negotiate immediate and long-term solutions with counterparts in the Saudi government," the statement said.
"The directive of (President Rodrigo Duterte) is to bring all of them home as soon as possible," Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello told ABS-CBN television in an interview aired Saturday.
The Philippine government estimates about 9,000 Filipino workers were affected.
They could not leave because they lacked proper permits or were still awaiting months of back pay, Migrante added.
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