Filipinos in Middle East war zones torn between life and livelihood: ‘we have families’

Filipina carer Charlot David made the run back and forth to the bomb shelter several times before deciding it was better to simply stay there.The 44-year-old mother of four, who has lived through “several wars” since moving to Israel in 2008, knew exactly what to do when the ear-splitting alert on her mobile phone first woke her on Saturday.“Our flat is three minutes away from the bomb shelter, so we really have to run fast,” she said in a video interview from her employer’s home in Rehovot, a city 20km (12 miles) south of Tel Aviv.The carer is one of an estimated 2 million overseas Filipino workers in the region, sending billions of dollars in remittances home each year to families in the Philippines that depend on them as the primary breadwinners.People take cover under a bridge as air-raid sirens sound near Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Monday. Photo: EPA“There were several alerts until we concluded, OK, this is no joke. It’s Iran. So, we decided to stay inside the bomb shelter,” David said.