JEDDAH, 4 April 2003 — With war raging in Iraq and a killer pneumonia virus called SARS beginning to take its toll in East Asia, thousands of Overseas Filipino Workers in the Middle East are in a quandary.
The war has forced some to push the panic button. Many of them have sent their dependents back to the Philippines, thinking it was safer there.
But then, almost simultaneously, came the news of the outbreak of the pneumonia virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
While the number may not be that big, Philippine Health Secretary Celso Dayrit has said there is no guarantee that the virus can be kept out of the country forever, considering the big number of Filipinos working in infected countries.
Because of travel warnings regarding the SARS, many other Filipinos in the Middle East who were planning to take their families home for the duration of the school vacation are holding back.
As a result of the SARS scare, airliners plying the Saudi Arabia–Philippine route have been hit with drastic flight cancellations. Industry sources said these included the Philippine Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Cathay Pacific said at least 22 percent of their booked p.
Airline executives said the flight cancellations are unnecessary for Filipinos going home from Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries, even for flights that pass through countries placed under the high SARS risk.
“It’s just a scare,” said a Singapore Airlines executive. “If our kababayan (compatriots) are afraid of getting infected, they don’t have to stay in Hong Kong or Singapore.”
In the first place, the executive said, airliners have imposed strict pre-flight measures to combat the spread of the virus and protect passengers. Cathay Pacific, for one, has instructed its crew not to check in passengers who show any signs of the illness.
Singapore Airlines advised its check-in and ground staff to advice passengers with flu-like symptoms not to travel.