FOR STRANDED FILIPINOS : DFA asks UAE to relax visa rules

MANILA, Philippines -- The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is again asking the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to temporarily relax its visa rules to allow the estimated 5,000 Filipinos stranded outside its borders to return to the Middle East state.

Several weeks ago, civil society groups raised the alarm about the sorry state of Filipinos stranded in Oman and Kish Island in Iran.

Following this, the DFA said it sent consular teams to look after the welfare of the stranded Filipinos, some of whom have been reported to be starving, sick, or compelled to prostitute themselves in exchange for food and lodging.

"We, with the help of the Filipino community there, provided emergency assistance like food and clothing. We have also asked the UAE government for the nth time to allow our countrymen to go back to UAE and regularize their stay," DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said Thursday.

But if the UAE turns down the Philippine request, then, "we have no choice but to take them [stranded Filipinos] home," he said.

Conejos explained that most of the stranded Filipinos went to UAE on a tourist or visit visa, hoping to find work there. When they failed to land a job before the end of the 60-day limit of their visas, they left the UAE, spent a couple of days in either Oman or Kish then returned to continue looking for work.

"Before it was not difficult to get or renew [this type of] visa, but with the new rules, the UAE requires that foreign workers seeking work in the UAE must get a workers' visa first in their country of origin," he said. Thus, when the new rules came into force on July 30, the Filipinos thus found themselves being turned away at the UAE border.

He said an estimated 800 Filipinos are stranded on the border of the UAE and Oman while close to 4,000 Filipinos are stranded on the Iran-UAE border.

At the same time, he advised Filipinos seeking jobs in the UAE to first secure working visas before flying there.

As of December 2007, government figures show that about 93 percent of the Filipinos in the UAE (or 493,411 of 529,114) are temporary residents. Around 53,000 are irregular while a small fraction (703) are permanent residents. - Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net, October 16, 2008