DFA repatriates more Filipinos

THE Department of Foreign Affairs ( DFA) repatriated this week 8,924 distressed Filipinos, most of whom were rendered jobless because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid- 19) pandemic.

This brought the total number of overseas Filipinos (OFs) evacuated since February to 124,717. Of this number, 39.8 percent

( 49,655) were sea- based, while 60.2 percent ( 75,062) were land- based.

This week, the government repatriated 3,660 Filipinos from the United Arab Emirates ( UAE) through 13 special commercial repatriation flights and one DFA- chartered flight.

In a statement, the DFA said the government “reaffirmed its commitment to bring home our overseas Filipinos from the UAE as the deadline to leave the country, for those with expired tourist visas, drew near.”

The Foreign Affairs department also brought home 2,349 seafarers from Bangladesh, Italy, Spain, Japan, Singapore, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Through the help of its various foreign service posts and the Filipino community abroad, the DFA was able to bring home stranded Filipinos from Mongolia, Palau and the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

It also worked closely with its embassies in Beirut and Tehran on the immediate repatriation of distressed Filipinos in Lebanon and Uzbekistan.

The Philippine Embassy in Seoul on August 5 arranged another special flight to bring home 143 land- based and sea- based Filipino workers.

To date, the embassy had arranged a total of eight special passenger flights and facilitated the return of 1,412 stranded Filipinos in South Korea.