As a labour attaché in Israel, lawyer Teresita Manzala used to brave the occasional missile from the Hizbollah to check on the safety of Filipina maids working near the border with Lebanon.

Now back in Manila, Ms Manzala is helping Filipino migrant workers deal with another sort of emergency: the sudden loss of jobs, as the global financial crisis forces thousands of factories, hotels, construction companies in Asia and the Middle East to shed staff.