Far from home, close to grief: why millions of Filipino migrants dread Undas

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Separated by thousands of miles, overseas Filipinos must balance remembering their dead with the pain of missing their families back home

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For over three decades, Dolores Balladares Pelaez has lived and worked in Hong Kong without once returning to the Philippines for Undas, the annual two-day observance honouring the dead.

This year, she is arranging prayers from afar for her late father and four siblings, but will once again miss the gathering back home.

On Thursday morning, the 56-year-old domestic helper called her mother and niece in Laguna province to discuss hiring a prayer leader to visit the family home. Her sisters-in-law were also invited to remember their deceased husbands.

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