Sprinkles
Whilst the prospect of redundancy must be extremely stressful, try not to be overly disheartened by the rejection from BA. On paper I'm sure you appear a safe bet; greater than 1500hrs on the bus with a background established in two respected operators. I think you are probably selling yourself short when it comes to airlines in the Gulf. I know of at least one where you exceed the requirements. The ME isn't ideal but it's a stable job with better command prospects than BA. Hopefully you won't have to venture that route but if if you do..
As consolation, the BA DEP process is littered with traps which could see you fall at the slightest of hurdles. In my opinion and experience, the further that you get within the process only leads to greater disappointment when you fail. All "offers" will be for a holding pool with no guarantee of a start date. There has been an ongoing and disheartening record of people making it, only not to actually make it in the end. And whilst I'm sure LC and his team of recruiters see this as completely undesirable, it has occurred in the last two campaigns. Been there, bought the t-shirt. It isn't pretty.
BA have went from a position of dumping a DEP hold pool and denouncing any future prospect of further DEP hire to a desperate need for DEPs across multiple fleets in less than 12 months. There is now a requirement for LH hire, something that had been completely discounted by many within. From this it is difficult to fathom what's going on. However could a hold pool place be argued as a safe bet considering previous and more recent occurrences? A hard one to answer I'd say.
Best of luck for the future