Employers and sponsors of OFWs who will be deployed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) will now shoulder the cost of institutional quarantine requirement imposed by its government.
MANILA: A day after more than 400 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) were prevented from leaving for Saudi Arabia due to ambiguity over who would bear the costs for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) tests and quarantine measures upon their arrival in the Kingdom, the Philippine government said on Saturday that the deployments had been resumed.
“The temporary suspension of deployment to the Kingdom is hereby lifted,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement.
He added that the Saudi government had assured the Philippines that “foreign employers and agencies will shoulder the costs of institutional quarantine and other COVID-19 protocols upon arrival in the KSA.”
Diplomatic sources revealed to The Arab Weekly that Alistair Burt, the former British Minister of State for Middle East and North Africa, was the front-runner to succeed the UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths.
Wednesday, 26 May, 2021 - 04:45
Prince Khalid bin Salman meets with US envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking. (Twitter) Asharq Al-Awsat
Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman held separate talks in Riyadh on Tuesday with US envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking and UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths, reported the Saudi Press Agency.
Talks focused on the latest developments in Yemen and joint efforts exerted towards supporting Saudi Arabia’s initiative to end the conflict.
On his talks with Griffiths, Prince Khalid tweeted: “I assured him of the Kingdom s support to the UN’s efforts to establish a ceasefire and reach a comprehensive political resolution to the Yemeni crisis.”