Digging in for the long haul: Some OFWs in Dubai refuse to go home despite COVID-19 pandemic

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — While most jobless and stranded OFWs in Dubai and its neighboring cities have been lining up for repatriation, there are also those who refuse to go home as yet.

They have their reasons:  from having loved ones back home needing financial support, to not being able to save enough for “pasalubong,” to bleak prospects of employment in the Philippines.

“Sometimes I think of going home, kasi po nauubusan na ng raket at ang mahal ng renta sa bahay, pagkain pa,” said 32-year-old Maria Ritchelle Uringan Ferras, single mother of two kids aged 12 and nine.

“Pero I have kids to send to school and a family to feed. Kaya nagbabaka-sakali pa na makahanap ng maganda-gandang work, umaasa na kahit papano may magandang oportunidad pang naghihintay sa kabila ng lahat ng ito,” she added.

Ferras, who hails from Abra and who arrived in June of 2014,  was property manager at a real estate company when she lost her job back in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Living is Satwa, a workingclass enclave in Dubai, sometimes also referred to as “Little Manila,” Ferras has been surviving through odd jobs like waiting tables and the likes.

Fe Alapanta, an assistant teacher, has not been earning money for the past four months as schools have temporarily closed due to COVID-19.

“Nag-iisa lang ako dito sa UAE. Sa awa ng Diyos, nakakaraos gawa ng mga taong nagbibigay ng kahit konti na ginagamit ko sa pang-araw-araw na pangkain habang naghihintay po na magbukas na ang school,” Alapanta said.

Despite the daily grind she’s in, worrying about food and where to get money for her bedspace rent, Alapanta said she does not intend to go home. “I don’t have any plans to return to the Philippines right now because walang ipon… sobrang liit ng sahod at laging late pa po,” she said.

Alapanta, who hails from Isabela, is also a single mom who has a 13-year-old twins, both of them girls.

Still, another OFW, 36-year-old Chona Bation of Zamboanga City, said she’d rather take her chances.

A former grocery store cashier in Dubai’s neighboring city of Sharjah, Bation said she has been surviving through money sent her by relatives back home as as well as dole-out groceries from Good Samaritans in the UAE. She said she was at a quandary about going home.

“Nakakahiya nga na sila pa ang nagpapadala sa akin ngayon,” Bation said, referring to her kin. “Sabi naman nila okay lang kasi nung may trabaho naman ako ay pinapadalhan ko sila. Naaawa rin sila sa akin.”

She said she had wanted to go home “pero patay din dun sa amin.”

“Wala din akong magiging trabaho at mahirap makabalik,” Bation said.

Having just renewed her visit visa status from money sent by her auntie who also works in the Middle East, Bation, who has been in and out of part-time jobs recently, said she plans to apply for a school job.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), of the 50,887 overseas Filipinos brought home in July, 35,656 were from the Middle East – with the greatest number of repatriates arriving from the UAE at 14,948.

The latest to be repatriated was a batch of 354 OFWs who left Dubai International Airport on Aug. 5 on board Philippine Airlines flight PR 659. Another batch of over 300 left on July 30 and still another on July 24 with 351 OFWs.

The Philippine Consulate General repatriated the first batch of OFWs, numbering 370, in mid-June on board Cebu Pacific flight 5J 19.

Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes has said that they were reviewing some 8,000 repatriation requests from OFWs in Dubai and its neighboring cities of Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras al Khaimah and Fujairah.

According to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, there were 400,000 documented OFWs in Dubai.

In all, officials estimate that there were approximately 750,000 documented OFWs in the United Arab Emirates. —KBK, GMA News