18,000 jobs await displaced OFWs in Saudi, Qatar

Eighteen thousand jobs in the Philippines will be made available to displaced overseas Filipino workers in Saudi and Qatar.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Tuesday said these jobs will be made available to OFWs in a job fair that the agency is set to hold in the two countries soon.

"We would be conducting a job fair in Qatar and in Saudi for jobs available in our country and there are 18,000 jobs ready for them here," Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a press briefing in Manila.

"So, in the meantime, we are getting the profile of our overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East and also at the same time we are planning to meet with former senator Manny Villar who is in need of 18,000 skilled workers," he added.

Asked what kind of jobs would be offered during the job fair, Bello said this is what they will discuss with the former senator this Friday.

"I think this will be skilled workers because he (Manny Villar) is in the construction industry," he said.

Aside from the 18,000 jobs for skilled workers, Bello said Education Secretary Leonor Briones was also in need of 2,000 teachers.

"Hopefully it will address our displaced workers there," he said.

Earlier, the DOLE said more than 600 OFWs have already been rendered jobless in Qatar which stemmed from the recent diplomatic crisis between Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Meanwhile, Bello also revealed that he was sending a Rapid Reaction Team to check on the situation of OFWs there.

"The team will be headed by DOLE Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad together, with Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Deputy Administrator Arnel Ignacio and some representatives from OWWA and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), to see the situation and the condition of our overseas Filipino workers especially in Saudi, Kuwait,

and Qatar," he said.