DUBAI: In what was widely seen in the local Filipino community as “unprecedented,” over 27,000 Filipinos have returned home to the Philippines in a span of the past two months due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which reached the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in late January this year.
Over 8,000 more repatriation requests were being reviewed at the consulate in Dubai, a city of 400,000 documented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
“Quite a number of emails, messages, inbox and WhatsApp requests,” said Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes. “But we have to go through each and every message so that we’d know whether there were multiple submissions,” he added.
Philippine Embassy
The Philippine embassy said it has so far been able to assist 25,000 Filipinos, having secured approvals from Philippine aviation authorities for 76 flights since June. The consulate said it has repatriated more than 1,500.
“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.”
Dubai
In Dubai, 351 Filipinos, who, according to Cortes, were mostly visit visa holders, were repatriated in the evening of July 24, 2020 on board a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight PR 659. Another 354 left on July 30 on the same flight.
“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.
The consulate repatriated the first batch of OFWs, numbering 370, in mid-June on board a Cebu Pacific flight 5J 19.
Still, thousands more have bought their own tickets, but flights were unfortunately cancelled due to quarantine issues back home.
Visit visa
Among them is 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.
Sales, who 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, said her visit visa expired on June 5.
She had booked for a July 1 PAL flight but it was cancelled and rescheduled for August 4.
“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.
‘Unprecedented’
Meantime, Jason Roi Bucton, chair of the Kalayaan 2020 organizing committee, which put together this year’s celebration of the 122nd Philippine Independence Day in Dubai, said a mass repatriation of this scale was something not seen before in the Filipino community.
“Unprecedented talaga,” said Bucton, an architect who has been in Dubai since 2006.
“Grabe ang pandemic na ito. It has affected everyone from all walks of life. The good thing about us Filipinos is that, we help each other in times of needs. It is innate to us (Filipinos) to help out stranded kabayans due to flight cancellations, travel restrictions or visa procedures.
“The massive call for repatriation had been answered by the Philippine government, giving importance most especially to OFWs going home during this pandemic with all-expense-paid airfare and including covid testing, hotel accommodations, food and transportation until they reach their door steps.” he added.
The UAE suffered economic issues when the 2008-09 global slump caused by the US property bubble burst hit the country, during which there also were employment terminations and repatriations of expats.
But old timers say it was nothing compared to the current situation, where food is rationed by volunteers and Good Samaritans to the jobless, and stranded expats swamp airlines with calls asking for updates about their cancelled flights.
There are an estimated 750,000 documented OFWs in the UAE of which, according to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, some 400,000 are in Dubai.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it has repatriated over 100,000 Filipinos in the past six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola noting that this figure “is a first in the history” of the department.
The Daily Bread 