(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

DOHA: There is increasing demand for Filipina maids in Qatar despite the talk of Manila thinking of imposing a ban on sending domestic workers to GCC countries.

Some 4,000 maids have been recruited from the Philippines since the onset of the current year taking their total number to 40,000 from an estimated 36,000 at the end of 2011, according to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) here.

With more and more Qatari women pursuing higher education and taking up jobs, Qatari households, especially nuclear families, are forced to increasingly rely on maids. Read more...

(Photo credit: Kristone Bayoneta)

Zest Airways, the airline of juice drink magnate Alfred Yao, has bared plans to fly to the Middle East, which is home to millions of overseas Filipino workers.Documents from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed that the company applied for the authority to mount regular flights to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Currently, there are no local airlines flying from the Philippines to the Middle East, although flag carrier Philippine Airlines sells tickets to Abu Dhabi, among others, through code-sharing agreements. Read more...