Thousands of OFWs stranded outside UAE

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 2) Ramadan and stricter immigration rules of the United Arab Emirates have stranded thousands of Filipinos outside UAE borders, recruiters said.

Following this report, the Philippine embassies in Muscat, Tehran, and Abu Dhabi and the consulate general in Dubai were ordered to help the stranded Filipinos, most of who have entered the UAE with either visitor or tourist visas in the hope of finding work in the country, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Consul general Benito Valeriano in a text message said the estimated number of stranded Filipinos in Muscat alone was "several hundreds."

"We are now trying to find a way to resolve the issue. The UAE has been very strict on the issuance of re-entry visas in third countries. The new rules were published in UAE newspapers many months before the enforcement," he said.

Emmanuel Geslani, recruitment consultant, is calling on the Department of Tourism to crack down on travel agencies offering non-existent jobs in Dubai and other places in UAE.

Loreto Soriano of the LBS e-Recruitment Solutions, and Geslani said many Filipinos, mostly women, were forced to sleep with men and go into prostitution to survive once they have used up their pocket money.

"Every Sunday, there are ads in the newspapers offering, 'visit visas, ready work.' There is an unabated advertisement on this illegal activity," Geslani said, pointing out that travel agencies cannot recruit for work abroad.

Soriano said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has clamped down on the use of visit visas as a prelude to work in the UAE because it has become "a source of exploitation" of Filipinos.

"It induces maltreatment. For example, in Kish Island, where many Filipinos go after their two-week or one-month visit visas expire, many are forced to sell themselves so that they'd have something to eat. This has really become a source of exploitation," Soriano said.

Geslani said that the Filipinas end up in bed with the Filipinos they meet. "Usually, the Filipino they befriend becomes their pimp," he said.

Soriano lamented that some Filipinos, in their excitement and eagerness to go to UAE, particularly Dubai, would resort to these things, short-circuiting the regular work process.

While the Philippines still sends workers abroad, Soriano said Ramadan has slowed it down a bit. He said his own deployment of material technicians would resume October 11, the day specified by Saudi Arabia, as the end of Ramadan.

Acting DFA Secretary Esteban Conejos, in response to the report of stranded Filipinos, said that since September 23, a four-man consular team from the embassy in Muscat has been dispatched to Al Buraimi along the Oman-UAE border.

He said teams from the Philippine embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate general in Dubai were also on their way to the area, while a team from the Philippine embassy in Tehran would be dispatched to Kish Island.

"Abu Dhabi and Dubai are also making high-level representations with UAE authorities on behalf of the stranded Filipinos," he said in a text message coursed through DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal.

The new UAE immigration rules, which took effect July 5, are also in response to the influx of foreigners coming in as tourists but actually seeking work there. They prescribe the procedures for friends and relatives of foreigners with legitimate resident visas in the UAE. - By Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net, September 26, 2008