Press Release

Update on OMAN AMNESTY for overstaying expatriate workers

Department of Labor and Employment
Manila
June 25, 2015



Baldoz says 232 OFWs registered; 134 have come home

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday said Labor Attache to Oman Nasser Mustafa personally reported to him in Abu Dhabi during her lay-over there from the 104^th International Labor Conference in Geneva that the POLO in Muscat, Oman had registered 232 overseas Filipino workers who signified intention to avail of the Sultanate of Oman’s four-month general amnesty for illegal or overstaying expatriate workers.

“Labor Attache Mustafa reported that of the 232 applicants, 134 were approved by the Oman Ministry of Manpower and the Royal Oman Police-Immigration and they have been repatriated to the Philippines in three batches, with the third batch arriving on 29 June,” said Baldoz.

In his report, Mustafa said the first batch of 67 OFWs who availed of the amnesty left Muscat on 27 May on board Etihad Airways (3) and Oman Air (64). The second batch of 43 OFWs left last 10 June via Oman Air.

“The third batch of 24 OFW amnesty availees is scheduled to depart Oman on board Kuwait Airways on 28 June,” Labor Attache Mustafa reported.

“There will be a fourth batch comprising of about 101 OFWs more, but we will repatriate them after the holy month of Ramadan,” he added.

He also said distressed OFWs staying at the Migrant Workers and Other Filipinos Resource Center (MWOFRC) have availed of the amnesty, and 17 of them have been repatriated to the Philippines, thereby reducing the number of wards at the shelter to only eight.

Baldoz said the amnesty, which took effect From April 1 to July 31, 2015, will enable overseas Filipino workers illegally staying in Oman to rectify their status. “The four-month amnesty is part of Oman's efforts to regulate the presence of foreign workers there,” she said.

“Thus, I encourage those OFWs staying illegally in Oman to avail of this amnesty while there is still time,” she added.

Mustafa said in May that the amnesty is covered by the guidelines under the labor law promulgated by the Sultanate's Royal Decree 35/2003 and which Oman’s Ministry of Manpower briefed labor attachés of foreign embassies in Muscat about.

After the amnesty announcement, Mustafa said the Ministry of Manpower and the Royal Oman Police have been conducting raids against undocumented migrant workers, tightening controls on work permits and tenancy contracts, and scrutinizing landlords and their tenants.