DESK REVIEW ON POPULATIONS AT RISK OF STATELESSNESS The current Social Welfare Attaché reported that the Saudi government conducts free DNA testing, and that once the biological relationship with the child is confirmed, the child can be repatriated to the Philippines.160 The previous Social Welfare Attaché who had previously been deployed to Saudi Arabia in around 2013, reported that more than 2,000 children were repatriated to the Philippines during her deployment to the country. B.4.d. Bilateral Agreement On 19 May 2013, the Ministry of Labor of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Department of Labor and Employment of the Philippines signed a Bilateral Agreement on Domestic Worker Recruitment. This was the first bilateral agreement signed between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia and led to similar agreements being signed with the other Gulf countries.161 The agreement includes a number of aims, intentions, and areas of cooperation. These include: • An intention “to enhance cooperation on domestic worker recruitment in a manner that realizes the interest of both countries, maintain their sovereignty, [and] secure the rights of both the worker and the employer” set out in the preamble. • The stated purpose in Article 2 is, “to protect the rights of both the employers and domestic workers and regulate the contractual relation between them.” • Eight listed “areas of cooperation” in Article 3 include: (1) working towards a mutually acceptable recruitment and deployment system; (2) adopting a standard employment contract binding on the contracting parties; (3) ensuring licensing of recruitment offices, companies, or agencies; (4) regulating recruitment costs; (5) prohibiting unauthorized salary deductions or charges; (6) right of recourse to a competent authority for contractual disputes; (7) taking action against parties who violate terms; and (8) resolving any issue arising from this agreement. Article 4 sets out Saudi Arabia’s responsibilities, and includes endeavoring to establish a mechanism to provide 24-hour assistance to the domestic worker; and facilitating the issuance of exit visas for the repatriation of domestic workers “upon contractual completion, emergency situations, or as the need arises.” This last provision on exit visas would appear to be an important advancement given the finding of the 2011 of the Investigating Mission of the Committee on Overseas Workers’ Affairs (COWA) to Saudi Arabia that exit visas have not Excerpt from Initial Consultations with Social Welfare Attachés and the Department of Social Welfare and Development 17 June 2020. 160 Republic of the Philippines, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), A first between Saudi Arabia and a country of origin, In 2013, historic agreement between PH and KSA sealed stronger protection for the Filipino HSW, 27 December 2013, available at: https://www.dole.gov.ph/news/a-first-between-saudi-arabia-and-a-country-of-origin-in-2013-historic-agreement-betweenph-and-ksa-sealed-stronger-protection-for-the-filipino-hsw/. 161 52 UNHCR / April 2021