As someone with first hand knowledge of our recruitment and selection process, I can assure Xiamen that there is no prejudice from the team.
The quality of many candidates is quite simply, shocking. It opens my eyes a little further every time I do the assessments. And that holds true for both FO and Capt applicants.
If the quality is so poor, you are not selecting the right candidates to begin with.
EK is very experienced in finding the right pilots, so this does not make sense.
If you are calling qualified pilots, the failure rate should not be 99%. The candidates can't all be retarded. An assessment is not rocket science, so the failure rate should be the roughly the same as for any other pilot assessment.
But it isn't. It is way higher.
The only conclusion can be this, the selection team is on a mission not to select DECs.
You mention DEP as well. The failure rate there is just as normal. Some bad, some good. As it should be.
Why?
Same reason EK pilots come here to paint a black picture of EK and everything related to EK and Dubai.
Parked aircraft due lack of pilots = possibilty of better T&C.