Manila Times Editorial: 3 Million OFWs in the Line of Fire — Repatriating Them Could Be the Marcos Government's Biggest Challenge Yet
A sobering editorial from The Manila Times lays bare the scale of the Philippines' OFW crisis in the Middle East: nearly 3 million Filipinos work and live across the region, and a full-scale war could trigger the largest repatriation operation in the country's history. 'Ensuring the safety of our workers is only one concern,' the paper warned.
The numbers are staggering. Based on DFA data, there are 973,000 Filipinos in the UAE, 813,000 in Saudi Arabia, 250,000 in Qatar, 211,000 in Kuwait, 56,000 in Bahrain, 31,000 in Israel, and 800 in Iran. These are not just statistics — they represent breadwinners supporting millions of families back home through remittances.
The editorial pointed to the 1990 Gulf War as a cautionary tale, when the Philippines repatriated tens of thousands of workers from Kuwait and Iraq. But the current crisis is exponentially larger — affecting not one or two countries but potentially the entire Gulf region, from Israel to Bahrain.
Philippine embassies in the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Jordan have already advised Filipinos to limit their movement. But 'advising caution' is very different from organizing large-scale evacuations across multiple countries simultaneously, many of which have damaged airports and disrupted commercial flights.
The editorial concludes with a grim warning: OFW remittances are a pillar of the Philippine economy, contributing over $30 billion annually. A mass repatriation wouldn't just be a logistical nightmare — it would deliver a devastating economic blow to the families who depend on those monthly transfers and to the national economy that relies on them.
Source: The Manila Times
