The Philippines is the leading exporter of nurses to foreign countries. On average, 13,000 nurses leave the country every year. However, a month after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Philippines, a sudden deployment ban on nurses was imposed.

Nurses who have spent a fortune securing jobs overseas now find themselves strong-armed to stay and serve the country. But why do so many nurses want to leave the country in the first place?

As we follow the nurses working in the frontlines of the pandemic, we find out how the Philippine healthcare system leaves its nurses overworked, underpaid and unprotected.

From Series 8 of the award-winning series, Undercover Asia