DUBAI: A total of 99,465 applications for the Department of Labor and Employment’s Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (DOLE-AKAP) program was received by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) here as the coronavirus pandemic halted business activities across the city last year.
This, according to POLO data obtaine from Labor Attaché Felicitas Bay, which also showed that 32,253 were approved of which 25,869 has received their AED730 one-time financial assistance under the AKAP program.
Total amount disbursed was AED 18.88 million, still according to the data.
“The allocation was for 27,000 OFWs,” said Bay. “POLO-Dubai had the most number of applications received and the most number of cash assistance recipients among all POLOs,” she added.
Dubai has approximately 500,000 OFWs before the pandemic occurred, according to various official estimates. The bulk of this number are in the services sector, mostly in the hotels as well as food and beverage companies, which were hardest hit when quarantine measures were imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
In a separate report meantime, POLO-Dubai said it had 758 distressed OFWs under its care last year of which 584 had been repatriated by the Philippine government; 83 had left UAE on their own; and 73 had been endorsed to POLO-Abu Dhabi.
The distressed OFWs were mostly household service workers (HSWs) who have run away from their employers over allegations of abuse. Oftentimes they were victims of human traffickers who promised them office jobs or employment as restaurant staff but turned them over to licensed companies providing cleaning services upon arrival in the city.
Related link:
The Daily Bread 