DUBAI: “The money I raise from my part-time work is not enough, so I usually just have a meal once a day to save money,” Dubai-based Filipino household helper Cinderella told Arab News.
“I was working for a Syrian family here in Dubai, but they left the UAE because of the US-Iran conflict amid fears regarding their safety.”
The part-time jobs — cleaning services and offering Filipino holistic massage — are few and far between and are not enough to cover Cinderella’s monthly rent of $163 (Dh600) and daily food costs.
“Only if I manage to raise extra money am I able to send money to my mother in the Philippines,” she said, as she described her employment situation in the UAE over the past three years, adding that she said it felt “like a disaster.”
The conflict, now in its third month, upended the economy in the Middle East, especially those in Gulf countries that are dependent not only on Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) but also more than 200 nationalities for their workforce requirements. Expatriates make up as much as 88 percent of the population demographic in Qatar and the UAE.
