Oman weighs amnesty for stranded OFWs

MANILA, Philippines -- The Oman government is carefully studying a proposal from Manila to grant amnesty to some 1,300 overseas Filipino workers currently stranded at the United Arab Emirates-Oman border towns of Al Buraimi and Khassab as other undocumented foreigners there might follow suit.

Ambassador to Oman Acmad Omar made this statement Saturday when he was interviewed on the telephone by Vice President Noli De Castro at the latter's weekly radio program, "Para Sa Iyo, Bayan."

Omar said that from what he gathered, the Omani government was reluctant to give amnesty in the form of a waiver of penalties to the OFWs, who have expired visas and now face fines and deportation.

"They are studying it carefully because there are about 500,000 Indians here and Omani officials fear the Indians might also ask for amnesty and there are more Indian illegals here," Omar told De Castro in Filipino.

Also among the illegals in Oman are Chinese and Moroccans.

Omar said that he had visited the border three times and advised the OFWs to first go home to the Philippines while waiting for the renewal of their visas instead of staying at the border but to no avail.

"They said they would rather wait for a chance to return to the UAE," he said.

The amnesty proposal, first initiated by De Castro through the Philippine embassy in Muscat, also called for the hiring of stranded OFWs to work in Oman.

“I do hope that the Omani government will consider and understand the plight of our OFWs there. The waiver of penalties will be a big relief to them. It's good to know also that Ambassador Omar has already given immediate assistance to these stranded OFWs,” De Castro said.

Omar has already coordinated with some employment agencies in Oman for them to conduct on-site interviews and possibly hire OFWs considering that Oman's economy is now booming.

De Castro stressed that these OFWs could not be considered illegal workers in Oman but were simply overstaying there after using the border as exit point from the UAE.

He said the OFWs were given two weeks notice and thereafter will be fined 10 riyals or P1,250 per day.

He said that originally, there were 2,000 OFWs stranded in Al Buraimi while 500 in Khassab. From these, only 400 remained as the others were able to return and acquired new visas.

But with the stricter policy of UAE on visa renewal, the numbers again increased, De Castro said.

With the help of the Filipino community and the embassy staff, Omar personally went to the border three times to monitor the situation of the stranded Filipinos.

There were over 2,000 OFWs stranded in Al Buraimi when Omar visited the site on September 27 and October 1, and over 1,000 more on October 5. By October 16, some 1,000 were left for possible repatriation, and 300 of them are in Khasab border.

Omar also confirmed that a stranded OFW, Tomas Agapito of Mandaluyong, was suffering from peptic ulcer and was brought to a clinic in Oman while a pregnant OFW had a miscarriage while at the border.

He said the embassy was coordinating the repatriation of the woman. - Cynthia Balana, Philippine Daily Inquirer, October 25, 2008