To assist overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in United Arab Emirates who were laid off from their jobs, an online portal that would help retrenched OFWs get a new job were set up by Philippine labor officials.

The portal which was set up in Deira is connected to the database of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) in Manila. Its purpose is to match available job vacancies to skills and experience of applicants.

Jocelyn Hapal, overseas operations coordinating service director of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported that as of tthis writing, 830 displaced OFWs have availed of the services.

Hapal informed that majority of OFWs who have lost their jobs as a result of the global financial crisis used to be employed in the the banking, construction and real estate sectors, and the marketing departments of companies in Dubai, Sharjah and Jebel Ali.

When the team of Hapal leaves in Dubai, Virginia Calvez, a labor attache will be the one to supervise the online portal in Deira.

Hapal said, "As we leave the UAE, this special online portal becomes the permanent repository and clearing house of jobs for the professionals, skilled and semi-skilled Filipinos," she added.

She added, “Retraining centers have been established in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to train potential Filipino job seekers to enter the market in these countries.”