From the all-time Pinoy homegrown favorite Ice Candy to dried fish, the stretch of supermarket row in Muraqqabat has transformed into an informal street market of sort where Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have resorted to peddling, saying they have no choice but to risk it to make little money for the rent and food.
They get full support from fellow OFWs who buy their stuff despite not really needing them, among whom include Victoria Saleza, office employee in Business Bay who lives in the area.
“Suporta ko na lang sa kanila yan. Mabuti nang ganyan, marangal na nabubuhay kaysa maka-isip ng hindi tama. Lamang ay bawal ang kanilang ginagawa dahil walang permit from authorities,” Saleza said.
Antonina Jose (Not her real name), a domestic help, herself sells lumpiang shanghai (beef dim sum wrap). She said she has resorted to peddling because her employer left for India and has not returned yet.
“Hindi pa bumabalik yung amo ko,” Jose said, adding that she needs money to pay for her bedspace.
Like most peddlers, Jose blends herself into the crowd and asks shoppers coming out from the supermarkets if they have spare money to include her lumpia.
“Nakakabenta naman,” she said. Her dim sum wrap sells for Dh7 – seven pieces in a pack.
There are approximately 88,600 OFWs in Dubai and the neighboring northern emirates who have either lost their jobs, are on a no-work-no-pay arrangement or have had their salaries adjusted by as much as 50% because of the pandemic, according to the consulate’s Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO).
Over 53,100 of them are on a no-work-no-pay arrangement; and 26,580 are jobless. Hundreds have gone home while several hundreds more, who have booked tickets, have remained stranded because of flight cancellations at Philippine airports mainly for lack of place to put returning OFWs on 14-day quarantine.
The Daily Bread 