DUBAI: As the Philippine missions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been having all hands on deck to repatriate stranded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), over 26,500 Filipinos have been assisted in their return home through chartered flights by the foreign affairs department or individual bookings with commercial ones.
Even so, thousands more wait for their turn.
Among them is 35-year-old Jhoy Dumol Cabanalan Sales of Iloilo in central Philippines, who arrived in Dubai on March 5 with a visit visa, a few weeks before all arrival and departure flights in the UAE were suspended as part of measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“Wala naman po akong mapasukan dahil may pandemic nga, kaya uuwi na lang po muna ako kasi nahirapan na din po ako dito. Sana matuloy yung flight,” Sales said, referring to an Aug. 4 booking she has with Philippine Airlines.
The booking was for a July 1 flight but was rescheduled for August 4. Her visit visa expired on June 5, she said.
Cabanalan currently shares a place in Al Ain.
“Malaki naman po yung room, kuya. May bed sila, tapos ako nasa baba my foam lang ako nilalagay ‘pag gabi,” Cabanalan said.
Cabanalan said she borrowed money for her PAL plane ticket. “Inutang ko lang muna, po,” she said.
Sales had worked at a salon in Dubai from 2009 to 2013 and was back in the city to once again try her luck but apparently in vain.
Meantime, the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi said it has secured approvals from Philippine aviation authorities for 76 flights since June.
“An estimated 25,000 Filipinos have been able to return to the Philippines using these flights. With these flight approvals, many of those who booked tickets in May, but whose flights were cancelled, were able to push through in June and July with their commercial flights,” the embassy said in an official statement.
“Currently,” it added, “the embassy is seeking clearances for August flights, most likely at the same level since there are still restrictions imposed on arrivals in Philippine airports due to COVID-19.”
In Dubai, 351 Filipinos, who, according to Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes, were mostly visit visa holders, were repatriated in the evening of July 24, 2020 on board a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight PR 659.
“We have repatriated over 1,500 since the pandemic began,” Cortes said. “The rest,” he added, “bought tickets on their own.”
Cortes said some 3,000 more OFWs were in line for the next batches of repatriation through flights arranged by the consulate.
There are an estimated 750,000 documented OFWs in the UAE of which, according to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, some 400,000 of them are in Dubai. Thousands more are believed to be staying illegally.
The Daily Bread 