Over 3,000 OFWs in Dubai risk overstaying as Philippines extends flight suspensions

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The Philippine Consulate here has over 3,000
pending repatriation requests from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), most of
whom have cancelled work visas and thus risk overstaying as they don’t have legal status anymore to remain in the UAE.

In light of this, Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes, head of the Philippine
mission in Dubai and the neighboring northern emirates, said it’s all hands on deck at the consulate to address the situation as more requests keep coming in.

“The government is doing its best to respond to the growing number of requests for repatriation and we are working on mounting more repatriation flights for our kababayans,” Cortes told GMA News Online.

Crux of the matter is an announcement made by Malacañang this week further
extending the travel ban from six countries, including UAE, to prevent the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant in the Philippines.

Some 348 OFWs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were repatriated in the evening of June
30 on board Philippine Airlines flight PR 8659. This number is on top of the over 3,000 repatriation requests that the consulate has, the bulk of which, Cortes said, were from OFWs whose work visas have already been cancelled following expiration of contract or termination.

Foreign nationals in UAE with expired work visas are fined AED125 on the first
day of overstaying and AED25 from the second day onwards.

“Those overstaying their visas cannot exit the country without paying appropriate fines, else they can leave and be perpetually banned from re-entering,” Cortes said.

The Philippine embassy and consulate repatriated another batch of 325 Filipinos  – 129 from Abu Dhabi and 196 from Dubai and its neighboring northern emirates – on board Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight 8659 on June 16, 2021.

At the time, pending repatriation requests at the consulate stood at over 1,000,
according to Cortes.

A similar flight was held earlier on June 1 with over 300 Filipinos on board,
according to Cortes.

The repatriations were being done in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-
OUMWA) by virtue of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Philippine Republic
Act 11519), through which free tickets were issued. —KBK, GMA News