Qatar Airways laid off around 200 employees, all Filipino nationals based in Qatar, this week as the coronavirus outbreak forces the Middle East carrier slashes flights.

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Philippine Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello told Reuters on Wednesday around 200 Filipinos were unexpectedly laid off by the airline, confirming an earlier ABS-CBN report.

“Our labor attache is under strict instructions to determine what is the real cause of the decision of management to retrench them on the basis of redundancy,” he told Reuters.

Qatar Airways did not respond to a request for comment.

The Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Airways came under fire on Friday for doubting the existence of the deadly coronavirus, an outbreak that the World Health Organization has labeled as a global pandemic.

SOURCE: ALARABIYA