On Thursday night, the first group of Filipinos who had overstayed their visas requested aid from their country of origin and departed Dubai for Manila.
Orly is happy to meet his family in the Philippines after 16 hard years, holding a heart-shaped pink pillow in his left hand and a passport in his right. Joan, who is just as eager to get home with her three-month-old kid, is a few yards behind him.
Orly, 43, and Joan, 35, along with their child Zayn, are among the first group of Filipinos to return in large numbers after taking advantage of the current visa amnesty scheme in the United Arab Emirates. A total of 64 overstaying Filipinos, including 29 from Dubai and 35 from Abu Dhabi, requested aid from the Philippine government in returning home. On Thursday night, they took Philippine Airlines flight PR 659 from Dubai to Manila.
When they see his two adult daughters, Orly said he will give them a strong embrace as soon as they arrive in Manila on Friday morning. “When I left to work in Dubai sixteen years ago, they were only eight and seven years old. Now, my second daughter, Mona, 23, completed college with a degree in business administration, and my eldest daughter, LyCell, 24, is a teacher,” Orly said to Khaleej Times on Thursday at Dubai International Airport.
“Those years that I spent missing my girls’ childhood feel like a distant memory. Now that I will at last be returning home and spending time with my family, I feel at peace,” he continued.
He claimed that because he had been switching jobs and companies frequently, he had not been able to travel home to Batangas for nearly 20 years. In 2008, he began working at a glass fabrication business in Dubai before relocating to Abu Dhabi. After his contract expired, he went to work for a different company. He claimed that during his last official employment in Sharjah, he and the other employees were not paid for several months.
They lost their employment and eventually had their residency visa expire in 2020, during the height of the pandemic. Orly had been working odd jobs and staying in the nation illegally ever since, sending money to his family in the Philippines and covering his own expenses.
Orly said that his overstaying fines had reached over Dh60,000 when he last checked. “Thank goodness, the UAE government declared amnesty, and I was among those who applied right away,” he continued.
However, Orly found that September 1, the day the amnesty program began, was bittersweet. Because his mother, who was 77 years old, also died on that day. “I requested my family to reschedule the burial from September 12 to September 15, so I can see my mother one more time before she is buried,” he said.
Orly declared that, despite everything, he is happy with his life.
