Number of Dubai OFWs seeking repatriation doubles to over 6,000 in barely 3 weeks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) here who have requested to be repatriated has doubled to over 6,000 in barely three weeks’ time, according to Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes.

“Every day, we are getting requests. There are more and more people who want to go home,” Cortes told reporters, adding that the figures he has were as of July 20.

“The number increases exponentially far faster than we could process,” Cortes said.

On July 4, Cortes said the number of pending repatriation requests that they have was at over 3,000.

Noting the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines where local cases of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus was announced by the Department of Health (DOH), Cortes urged OFWs to consider foregoing their plans to go home “unless they really, really need to.”

“Please huwag munang umuwi [Don't come home yet],” he said.

As of press time, there were a total of 119 Delta variant cases in the Philippines, of which 17 were found among returning OFWs. In all, the number of COVID-19  cases in the country was at 1,562,420 as of July 28, with 7,186 new infections, authorities said.

Vaccination

Dubai’s economy has gradually been getting back to normal on the back of the government’s aggressive vaccination campaign coupled with strict measures.

According to a Reuters report, the United Arab Emirates has administered at least 16,524,169 doses of COVID-19 vaccine doses so far.

Most of the repatriation requests were from OFWs with expired employment contracts who, consulate insiders said, lack the necessary skills to keep up with the digitalization and online restructuring that businesses have remodeled themselves into.

Mall shops for instance have put more efforts towards digital marketing than face-to-face transactions; a number of restaurants, too, have pushed to do more home deliveries. Both were offshoots of the “new normal.”

The bulk of the approximately 500,000 OFWs in Dubai are in the service sector – food and beverage outlets, retail, and hotels.

Meantime, Cortes said approximately 2,500 OFWs have been flown home since repatriations started in June this year. There have been seven flights so far; three in June and five this month.

Cortes said there were at least four flights tentatively set for August. —KBK, GMA News