'Very, very few' Dubai OFWs availing of DFA's New Year's Eve repatriation —ConGen

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has announced a New Year’s Eve repatriation in the Gulf but only a few OFWs here are availing of the flight apparently due to stringent procedures in leaving the Philippines again.

“Very, very few OFWs have registered,” Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes  told GMA News Online. “We are looking at about a hundred or even less.”

Repatriation requests peaked in July at around 8,000, according to Cortes.

The sweeper flight — PR 8659 DXB BAH  — is scheduled to leave Dubai at 11:45 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2020 then head to Manama in Bahrain to fetch OFWs there before flying to Manila, where it is expected to arrive at 4 a.m. of Jan. 1, 2021.

Priority are OFWs on expired visit visas as well as those whose residency visas have been cancelled and don’t have enough fund for plane tickets, Cortes said.

Eased restrictions

Economic activities in Dubai have, over the past several months, started to normalize as restrictions have been eased. Events are again allowed as restaurants and hotels resume operations.

Cortes said this can be a factor for the low turnout as OFWs who had lost their jobs during the quarantine months in March and April have started to be re-employed.

“And it is very difficult to leave the Philippines again,” Cortes added, citing various requirements including a certification that the OFW is COVID-free.

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has announced that it conducted 100,946 additional COVID-19 tests over the past 24 hours, using state-of-the-art medical testing equipment, of which 1,027 new coronavirus were reported.

This brought the figures at 202,863 total recorded cases since January, of which 179,925 have fully recovered and 660 have died.

Vaccine rollout

With this in the backdrop, COVID-19 vaccine rollout has begun across the country, with Dubai giving free Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to everyone so long as they are officially residents of the city. The mass inoculation started on Dec. 23.

“This shows that the UAE government is willing to provide vaccine services to all nationals regardless of citizenship as a gesture of its warm welcome to everyone,” Cortes said.

He refused to comment whether the free COVID vaccine may have also been a factor in the low turnout among OFWs who wish to return home.

The Philippine Consulate General’s Office has repatriated over 3,500 Filipinos, including children of OFWs, since the first flight took off in mid-June carrying some 370 OFWs on board Cebu Pacific flight 5J 19. Other subsequent flights were made through the Philippine Airlines.

Cortes heads the Philippine missions in Dubai and the neighboring Northern Emirates of Sharjah, Ajman, Um Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. —KBK, GMA News