MANILA, Philippines – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is a country unfit to receive Filipino domestic workers.

This was one of the key findings of a congressional fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia in its scathing 49-page report released to the public Thursday.

The mission is now poised to recommend to the Philippine government the immediate decertification of Saudi Arabia, long considered as the frontline state for the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

According to Committee on Overseas Workers' Affairs (COWA) Chairman Rep. Walden Bello, continuing to send Filipino domestic workers to Saudi Arabia is like "selling them to virtual slavery in households where rape, sexual abuse, and physical attacks are rampant.”

“While bringing domestic workers under the coverage of Saudi labor law would help, this is not sufficient protection. Owing to longstanding cultural practices, Saudi Arabia will remain a dangerous place for Filipino domestic workers,” Bello said in the report entitled "The Dark Kingdom? The Condition of Overseas Filipino Workers in Saudi Arabia."

Bello pointed out that until such time that the Saudi government accepts the responsibility of policing their nationals and protecting the rights and ensuring the welfare of household service workers, "it is incumbent upon the government to suspend the deployment of Filipinas to Saudi Arabia."

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is tasked by Republic Act 20010, the newly amended Overseas Workers’ Law, to certify if a receiving country’s laws and practices accords adequate respect for and protection for workers’ rights.

If a country is decertified for a certain class of workers, then the Philippine Overseas Workers’ Administration (POEA) will have to freeze the deployment of those workers to that country until such time as adequate legal and social safeguards are instituted.

Aside from Bello, other members of the fact-finding team who visited three key cities - Riyadh, Jeddah, and Al Khobar - from Jan. 9 to 13 were Vice Chairperson Maria Carmen Zamora-Apsay, Rep. Emmeline Aglipay, and Rep. Cresente Paez.

The mission was undertaken to familiarize the COWA with the conditions facing Filipino OFWs in the Kingdom where there have been numerous reports of abuses of Filipino workers, particularly female domestic workers.

The team was also tasked by the Lower House to assess the performance of Philippine government agencies in responding to the needs of OFWs in the country and to find out the response of KSA-based OFWs to key recent government initiatives such as mandatory insurance.

They also made the trip to investigate the status of Filipinos detained in Saudi jails, particularly those under the death penalty, with a view to securing their release or mitigating their sentences.

The key section of the report is the findings of the mission based on detailed documentation of various cases involving numerous OFWs, leading the team to conclude that the situation of Filipino domestic workers or household service workers there is dire, with overwork, maltreatment, and non-payment of wages very common.

Likewise, the team discovered that rape and sexual abuse are endemic, a condition that members of the mission felt was related to the sexual segregation followed in Saudi society, a tradition of treating domestic servants as slaves, and the strict subordination of women to men.

"Saudi society is suffused with latent sexual violence, much more so than most other societies," the report said.

"The sense of the team is that the causes are not religious in nature but are rooted in social organization," Bello and his team stressed.

In addition, the team pointed out that it was made evident to them that many OFWs are swindled, with them signing contracts with a recruitment agency stipulating at least $400 monthly as pay, only to be confronted with a substitute contract upon leaving the Philippines or upon arrival in Saudi Arabia specifying a significantly lesser amount.

Finally, the team said there was no enthusiasm for the mandatory insurance stipulated by RA 10022, with some OFWs proposing to junk it while others making constructive suggestions for amending the provision.

Bello said the report disclaims any intent to demonize Saudis since reading these accounts might give the impression that "all Saudi households are pockets of hell."

"In fact, there are instances where domestics find Saudis that treat them with dignity," Bello said. "What we wish to underline is the fact that, despite the good intentions and behavior of some Saudis, rape and physical abuse occur much too frequently in Saudi households, and domestic workers are often defenseless, prompting many of them to run away from their employers.”

Seeing first hand the situation of OFWs in the Middle East, the mission further urged the current administration to press the Saudi government to negotiate a bilateral labor agreement with the Philippines that would "secure respect and iron-clad protection for the rights of all classes of Filipino overseas workers."

Aside from a possible "deployment freeze," the fact-finding team also suggested that the Philippine government coordinate with other labor-sending countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India "to gain leverage vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia in order to secure respect for overseas workers' rights."

They further urged members of Congress to work with local government units in launching information campaigns to dissuade people from going to Saudi Arabia to engage in domestic work and related occupations such as "washers" and "beauticians."

The Bello-led team also underlined the importance of prosecuting recruitment agencies that have a record of deploying domestic workers to households and establishments that maltreat workers or are party to substitute contracting and similar activities under the Anti-Trafficking Act.

They also recommended that the government should ensure that the budget for Assistance to Nationals and the Legal Assistance Fund is not reduced and, if possible, increased instead.

Finally, the team pushed for an increase in the government's efforts to secure the release of death row victims as well as other nationals currently detained in Saudi jails on various charges.

With regards to the performance of Philippine government officials in Saudi Arabia, the team described them as "solid professionals."