More than 10,000 overseas Filipinos repatriated this past week —DFA
Published July 12, 2020 11:18am
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) facilitated the repatriation of 10,369 returning overseas Filipinos from different countries this past week.
“This brings the total number of DFA repatriated OFs to 78,809 since the government began its COVID-19 repatriation efforts in February 2020,” the DFA said in a statement on Saturday.
Around 47.16% of the total or 37,166 OFWs are sea-based and 52.84% or 41,643 OFs are land-based, the DFA said.
It added that the most recent repatriates were from France, the Netherlands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the USA, and Vietnam, who arrived on Friday.
“The DFA continues to facilitate more flights from the Middle East which is home to over 2 million overseas Filipinos,” DFA said.
This past week, the DFA said it assisted the repatriation of 6,681 fellow Filipinos in the region: nine flights from the UAE, seven flights from Saudi Arabia, three flights from Qatar, two from Bahrain, and one from Kuwait.
Aside from this, the DFA also facilitated the return of 1,628 stranded Filipinos from the Asia-Pacific region, particularly from Hong Kong SAR, the Maldives, Myanmar, South Korea and Sri Lanka.
“The return of our stranded seafarers from Europe also continues as the DFA facilitated the repatriation of 1,204 sea-based workers who arrived from Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey,” it said.
“Finally, the DFA mounted five chartered flights this week using its Assistance-to-Nationals fund, which brought home 1,323 overseas Filipinos from Japan, Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia,” it added.
The DFA with its Philippine embassies, consulates and attached agencies around the world, expressed its full commitment in bringing home stranded Filipinos abroad amid the COVID-19 pandemic. —Joviland Rita/KG, GMA News
