A non-government organization, Migrante-Middle East reminds overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) bound to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to make sure that all electronic items they are carrying doesn’t contain any material that may be deemed as illegal or unacceptable in Saudi’s beliefs and customs.

According to Migrante, screening of electronic devices of migrant workers arriving in the airports of Riyadh, Dammam, and Jeddah are currently being implemented.

When a migrant worker arrives at the airport, all electronic items he or she is carrying which includes cellular camera phones, memory card, flash disks, external hard drives, laptops, notebook computers, iPods, and MP3 players with memory cards are surrendered for checkup at the immigration section.

Immigration officials of Saudi Arabia utilize a special scanner that can examine the contents of the electronic items and record the finding to a main scanning computer.

Electronic gadgets that contain prohibited materials such as pornographic items or pirated software are confiscated right away.

The owner of the gadgets with prohibited materials would not be obligated to pay any fines but are expected to surrender the devices at peace. Those who would resist submitting the said items face the risk of either arrest or deportation.