Top OFW destinations for 2009 – Saudia Arabia is still No. 1
Posted on January 1st, 2010
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia still tops the list of land-based destinations of overseas Filipino workers, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). The agency also said that the Saudi Arabia even improved by 8.2 percent in terms of the number of OFWs deployed as of October 2009.
The POEA also noted that the deployment of OFW in 2009 improved by 11.7 percent, compared to that of previous year. Per the agency’s record, 900,127 of these OFWs were deployed in the oil-rich Middle Eastern country as of October 2009. For the same period last year, there 831,968 OFWs deployed.
Coming in at second with 160,242 OFWs deployed as October 2009, was the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which includes the debt crisis-stricken Dubai. The figure however, was 1.4 percent less than the 162, 466 OFWs who were deployed for the same period last year.
The third top OFW destination for 2009 was Hong Kong with figures pegged at 75,742 deployed OFWs. Qatar is fourth with 72,176, followed by Kuwait (38,729); Singapore (34,914); Taiwan (26,991); Italy (20,944); Canada (15,131); and Bahrain (12,800).
There 190,575 more land-based OFWs deployed as of October 2009, which were shared by different countries.
The figure for Taiwan was 22.1 percent below with that of previous year, this was attributed to the effect of the global economic crisis. Taiwan recorded the highest number of OFWs displaced by the global financial crisis, according to Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) secretary Marianito Roque. The labor secretary said at least 4,197 OFWs were laid-off in Taiwan from October 2008 to February 2009.
But for 2010, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office had assured that Taiwan’s economy would pick up, and so is its need for foreign workers for its manufacturing and computer parts industries.
