FILIPINOS IN UAE STRUGGLE WITH BI' NEW SPONSORSHIP REQUIREMENTS

  


Hundreds line up in front of the Philippine Consulate to get their paperwork done

 Re-introduction of unpopular requirement for Filipinos sponsoring relatives causes a great deal of inconvenience.

Dubai: It's 6.30am and Flor, a Filipina airline executive in her 36th week of pregnancy, is outside the gates of the Philippine Consulate at Al Ghusais, Dubai.

She is not alone. There are another 100 people waiting outside. The queue gets longer by the hour and swells up to 300 people by 8.30am when the gates open. By then, three lines have formed outside the gate, but no one from the Consulate ventures out.

Such scenes, normally witnessed only during amnesty periods, are now a regular feature outside the Consulate — thanks to the Bureau of Immigration (BI) authorities in Manila re-introducing the affidavit of support requirement in September for Filipinos sponsoring relatives visiting Dubai.

Time-consuming affair
"I didn't know it takes two weeks to get this simple paperwork done. By then I would have delivered my baby," said Flor, who was there with regard to her mother's visit. "My mum should have been here. There was no prior announcement, no mention of this requirement on its site," she said.

Consulate staff in Dubai grudgingly try their best to function normally amid the flurry of queries and piles of paperwork.

"I wish we could just do away with this. They did not give us additional staff. But we have to follow orders," a staff said. The re-introduction of this affidavit requirement was done to curb human trafficking, but Migrante, a pro-migrant NGO based in Manila, said it was a money-making trick by Manila's immigration authorities. "Why is the consulate imposing this when it's not required by Dubai Government?" asked Migrante chairperson Garry Martinez.

This affidavit was made mandatory in 2003, but scrapped in 2004. Benito Valeriano, the Philippine Consul General to Dubai, said: "This is better than no action. Our government is doing its best to curb trafficking and minimise the practice of circumventing labour deployment that ends up in Filipinos being forced to accept disadvantageous contracts."

But at what cost, Migrante asked. "While curbing human trafficking is fine, it should not be at the inconvenience of Filipinos in Dubai," he said.

~ Jay Hilotin, Gulf News