Rush for repatriation as UAE amnesty ends this week

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Overstaying Filipinos who were not able to obtain new jobs here were rushing in to secure documents for their repatriation as the two-month amnesty program for illegal aliens ends on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024.

Officials said the Philippine Embassy in the capital city, Abu Dhabi, and the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) in Dubai, were busy processing repatriation papers as requests to leave the country pour in.

“Madaming nag-last minute ngayon for travel documents for repatriation (We now have many last-minute requests for travel documents for repatriation),” Ambassador Alfonso A. Ver told GMA News Online.

The head of the Philippine missions to the UAE said updates will be made available middle of this week, as soon as repatriation numbers have been finalized.

“Yung next batch na uuwi, baka last batch na ‘yun (The next batch to go home could be the last batch),” Ver said.

Ver earlier said they were anticipating a big uptick in the number of Filipino overstayers finally deciding to go home after apparent efforts to secure jobs failed. 

He said there were also those praying for a deadline extension as was the case in the three-month amnesty period of 2018. The UAE government has, this time, so far stood pat on the amnesty deadline.

The amnesty, described by Ver as “very generous,” waives all fines and penalties for overstaying. A fine of AED50 for each day overstayed is imposed by the UAE government. Most of the overstayers have been in the UAE for years, incurring tens of thousands of dirhams in fines if the program had not been implemented. A year overstayed would have cost AED18,250.

There also were children who could not be given birth certificates because they were born to overstaying mothers. There were 146 such cases recorded in Dubai in the first 12 days alone of the amnesty program, according to Labor Attaché John Rio Bautista, head of the Migrant Workers’ Office at PCG.

Aside from waiving fees and penalties, the amnesty also offers two options to legalized overstayers: Leave the country with a clean slate and come back later to start again with a new job, or stay provided employment has been secured.

Ver had lamented that there were overstayers who were supposed to temporarily exit the country as required while their employment papers were being processed, or have left for the same purpose, were offloaded or blocked upon arrival for insufficient documents.

Officials said these overstayers, ill-informed about the amnesty rules and procedures, were apparently victimized by scammers preying on them.

The amnesty period started on Sept. 1, 2024. —KBK, GMA Integrated News