Bad News 81,000 Filipinos face Job Loss in Dubai Northern Emirates

Manila: Up to 81,000 Filipinos working in Dubai and the Northern Emirates may have faced job loss or a cash crunch, a senior Philippine official said on Tuesday, July 21. There’s a separate count for Abu Dhabi-based Filipinos.

As of April 2020, the “AKAP” (“Abot Kamay Ang Pagtulong”) program listed 74,050 Filipinos across the UAE – who were either terminated from work or were on a “No Work-No Pay” status.

An estimated 1 million Filipino expatriates lost their livelihood due to the global coronavirus crisis, according to Manila officials. As of July 3, 2020, some 72,000 overseas Filipinos had already been repatriated by the Manila government, Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello told Philippine media.

Philippine Consul General Paul Raymond Cortez said: “The estimate is based on the number of expat Filipinos in the emirate who applied for one-time financial assistance offered by the Philippine government.

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Citing data from DOLE (the Department of Labor and Employment) in Manila, the Filipino diplomat said the number of applicants is a good indicator, but the actual count may be off by about 10%.

“With the cash aid, offered by DOLE, we are looking at 90,000 Filipinos who faced job losses in Dubai and the Northern Emirates,” he said. “Perhaps count some double submissions or those who were not really laid off or furloughed, perhaps some 10% — or 9,000 — which makes 80,000 to 81,000 thereabouts.”

Dear OFWs, lets pray together, hopefully our brothers and sisters will go through this hard time, hope this pandemic will now end soon.