Over 31,900 Dubai OFWs got AKAP aid; 528 had COVID-19 —POLO official

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A total of 31,940 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Dubai and its neighboring northern emirates received AED730 each in financial support through the Department of Labor and Employment’s Abot Kamay ang Pagtulong (DOLE-AKAP) program.

This, according to Atty. Felicitas Q. Bay, DOLE’s labor attaché to Dubai who supervised the disbursement of the funds in her capacity as head of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) here.

In a Zoom meeting with the Filipino community held Saturday the labor attaché also told participants that 528 of the AKAP recipients were OFWs who have tested positive for COVID-19 and whose applications were given priority as a result.

Bay said there were 35,815 approved applicants from the 100,399 OFWs who submitted their papers since the AKAP program started receiving applications on April 10, 2020. The last application was submitted in February this year, she said.

“But the fund allocation was only for 31,940,” Bay said, adding that the last payment was made on June 24 this year for applications approved on May 3, 2020.

It took that long to disburse the money because POLO-Dubai had to wait for the fund to be replenished by DOLE’s main office in Manila. The fund came in tranches, Bay said.

“Hanggang doon na lang po talaga ang inabot,” Bay said, referring to the fund’s availability. “I cannot say,” she said when pressed if fresh AKAP funds could be forthcoming. “In the meantime, the AKAP is closed,” Bay said.

So far, she said, $6.37 million – or AED23 million – has been disbursed.

POLO Dubai, according to Bay, has the highest number of AKAP applicants and as well, the most number of recipients among POLO posts across the globe.

During pre-COVID-19 days, Dubai had approximately half a million Filipinos. Tens of thousands have gone home after being displaced by the pandemic.

The AKAP program provides cash assistance of P10,000 or US$200 for OFWs displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic. —KG, GMA News