Saudi tops list of OFW destination for 2009

PHILIPPINE Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)-Bacolod Office said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) remains on top of the list of land-based destinations for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) for 2009.

POEA Bacolod chief Carmen Nagum said not just that KSA maintain its hold on the number 1 spot of most destinations of OFWs, but numbers of deployed Filipino workers in the oil-rich country also increased by 8.2 percent in 2009.

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POEA said the total deployment rate of OFWs last year all over the world increased by 11.7 percent, noting that the poverty and unemployment in the country today perhaps prompted large numbers of Filipino to seek jobs in the foreign lands.

As per the agency’s record, more than 900,300 Filipinos were deployed in Saudi Arabia in 2009. In 2008, numbers of deployed OFWs in the said country is at 831,968.

Meanwhile, POEA saw a decrease of 1.4 percent on the numbers of OFWs deployed in Dubai and in many parts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2009. Last year, there were 160,242 OFWs deployed in the said country compared to 162,466 OFWs in 2008.

Completing the lists of top OFW destinations for 2009 were Hong Kong (75,742 deployed OFWs), Qatar (72,176 OFWs), Kuwait (38,729 OFWs), Singapore (34,914 OFWs), Taiwan (26,991 OFWs), Italy (20,944 OFWs) Canada (15,131 OFWs) and Bahrain (12,800 OFWs).

Of all the said countries, Taiwan was seen with the biggest decrease on OFW deployment rate for 2009, down by as much as 22.1 percent compared to 2008. POEA said this can be attributed to the recent global financial crisis of which Taiwan was one of the most affected countries.