Saudi King Salman Bin Abdullaziz Al Saud has issued an order waiving penalties for around 11,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded in the oil-rich country due to expired working permits.

Salman also ordered officials of the Saudi government to assist the affected OFWs by facilitating their transfer to other companies with vacancies such as Saudi Oger and the Saudi Bin Laden group, Eric Arribas, officer-in-charge of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh, said.

Arribas said Philippine officials led by Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Hans Cacdac recently met with representatives of the Saudi Ministry of Labor and Social Development.

With the lifting of the penalties, OFWs with expired working permits can reapply with their employers or avail themselves of the government’s repatriation program after issuance of their exit visas, according to Arribas.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will lead the government’s inter-agency efforts to assist Filipino workers stranded in Saudi Arabia.

DFA officials along with representatives of the DOLE, POEA, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health and Technical Education ad Skills Development Authority will leave for the Middle East on Aug. 10.

The team will be providing humanitarian, legal and medical assistance to the OFWs stranded in Saudi Arabia, the DFA said.

A high level delegation of Philippine government officials will meet with their Saudi counterparts next week.

The sending of the humanitarian team came after Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III met with Saudi Ambassador Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Bussairy on Aug. 3 to address the plight of stranded OFWs.

Saudi Arabia is suffering a recession after prices of crude plummeted to its lowest in the past 12 years, pushing the oil-rich kingdom’s government to cut spending and implement austerity measures.

Meanwhile, the Blas Ople Policy Center urged the DFA to hold bilateral talks with the Saudi government to protect the stranded OFWs.

In a statement, center head Susan Ople said the DFA should follow the lead of other countries, which successfully negotiated with the Saudi government for assistance to their stranded workers.

“If the Indian and French governments were able to hold bilateral talks with the Saudi government, why not the Philippines? Our OFWs can not come home without exit clearances issued by the companies that have not been paying their salaries for several months now,” she said. – With Rainier Allan Ronda, Sheila Crisostomo