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.
There are more than 2.4 million OFWs in the Middle East, mostly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who work in sectors including healthcare, hospitality, services and retail.
The conflict sent major shockwaves across the Gulf economies, and for millions of migrant workers this meant temporary or permanent job losses, lost wages and financial distress for them and their families back home.
Businesses turn south
With business declining because of the conflict, so too did Kim’s employment when the luxury hotel in Doha where she worked for three years, started shedding jobs.
“The hotel was cutting employees, especially those who were in higher positions, since they were not yet needed for operations because of the situation,” Kim told Arab News.
“Probably, they were expecting business to be weak because of the conflict, so those in senior positions were let go. I was among about 200 staff — from France, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Arab nationalities — who received termination papers. There was really no money coming in.”
Kim said the thought of going home to the Philippines with a limited prospect of gaining well-paid employment was of limited concern because she had siblings who were also OFWs helping to fill the family purse.
More often than not, OFWs are the breadwinners of their immediate family, although their financial support almost always extends to relatives as well. OFW remittances from the Middle East still rose slightly to $1.55 billion in the first quarter of 2026, from $1.49 billion during the same period last year, despite the conflict.
“My termination paper was later offered to be retracted, but I declined and decided to go home instead,” Kim said.
“I am not entertaining any thought of coming back to Qatar, or the wider Gulf region, for now. Three years in Qatar, and almost 11 years in the UAE. Almost a third of my life, I was in the Middle East, for my source of livelihood.
“For now, I just want to find time to relax, clear up the sad memory of losing my work amid explosions. It was not a good experience; it was scary, but I am thankful the government did not abandon us, as I felt safe.”
Filipinos wave national flags after disembarking from a government chartered flight from Dubai on March 19, 2026. (AFP)
Home, for good
Similarly, Tere and her husband’s decision to uproot from Bahrain and settle permanently in the Philippines was strongly influenced by the conflict.
“The recent conflict, which still continues, made business more difficult as a lot of ongoing projects were understandably put on hold,” Tere told Arab News.
“My husband and I had already planned to relocate back home to the Philippines by the end of this year. The conflict merely helped to expedite that decision. The move back to Manila is permanent.”
Tere, however, said that some of her friends and acquaintances still preferred to stay in the Middle East and carry on with their jobs after initially being scared by the drones and missiles being shot down daily, after realizing they were not the targets of the attacks.
“I hope that this conflict gets resolved soon, as it is negatively affecting people all over the world, even back home here in the Philippines,” she said.
Crucial lifeline
The conflict has been especially difficult for migrant Filipinos, whose futures – and those of their families — have been flipped. With wages four to five times higher than back home, OFWs’ remittances account for 10 percent of the Philippine economy, so the loss of crucial financial lifelines hurt not only households but the national resource as well.
So for Cindy, who has been in the UAE for almost two decades, her unexpected departure had a seriously adverse effect on her situation: “The recent conflict in the Gulf affected me financially and mentally … it was fear and uncertainty because of the tension in the region.
“I decided to move back to the Philippines mainly for safety, peace of mind and to be closer to my family,” she told Arab News.
Cindy is among more than 11,000 Filipinos who have so far sought government assistance through a repatriation program via chartered flights and regular passenger services. According to the Filipino department of migrant workers, about 4,500 of these were from the UAE, more than 2,200 were from Kuwait, almost 1,000 each from Saudi Arabia and Qatar and almost 900 from Bahrain. Some OFWs who were evacuated had with them their spouses and children, and sometimes extended families.
“At present, I am still looking for a stable source of income in the Philippines. I am considering small business opportunities and local employment while adjusting after returning home,” she said.
Yet she remained hopeful of working overseas again, saying her return home was temporary while assessing the situation and looking for better opportunities.
“I may still consider returning to the UAE once the situation becomes stable and safe again. The UAE provided good work opportunities for me, but safety and security will always be my main priority before making a decision,” she said.
Going back abroad
Cindy’s cautious optimism was not lost on the Philippine government.
As many as 70 percent of those who repatriated expressed a wish to return to the Gulf once the war ended, according to Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac, because many of them still hold valid employment visas that would enable them to return.
But to help them cope with their displacement, Cacdac said the government has offered those who left assistance ranging from psychosocial interventions, financial aid, livelihood support, entrepreneurship training and healthcare orientation.
For Filipino citizens who lost their jobs or had no work or pay arrangement with their employers and chose to remain the Middle East, the government rolled out assistance programs in 10 countries — Bahrain, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and the UAE — that allows them to benefit from a one-time $200 financial assistance.
More than 4,500 Filipinos have initially benefited and the number was expected to further increase as the budget for the program gets disbursed to Philippine missions and the guidelines for a simplified application process are implemented.
Cacdac said that the $200 assistance was part of a broader government crisis response package that includes on-site aid, repatriation support and reintegration programs for returning workers.
“The repatriation efforts and provision of necessary support to ensure the safe and orderly return of affected OFWs will continue,” Cacdac said.
Yet for other OFWs, such as Cinderella, who only a few days back got a regular job as a member of a cleaning crew, the thought of repatriation or settling back home is out of the equation, no matter how difficult the current situation is.
“When things get better here in Dubai, I am planning to leave but not for the Philippines, for Cairo, where I previously worked for 10 years and my employment situation there was better,” she said.
