More Overseas Filipinos return home
MANILA – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) today said 11,688 overseas Filipinos arrived this week. The total number of overseas Filipinos who have returned home since the COVID-19 pandemic since February this year.
In a statement, the DFA said 44.8 percent or 40,540 overseas Filipinos were sea-based workers while 55.2 percent or 49,957 were land-based. Most of the repatriates yesterday were from the Netherlands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, USA and the United States of America.
The DFA facilitated 31 flights from the Middle East, with 13 from the UAE, nine from Saudi Arabia, three from Qatar, two from Bahrain, two from Kuwait, one from Lebanon, and one from Oma where 8,500 Filipinos came from. Two of these flights, from Saudi Arabia and Lebanon were chartered by the DFA utilizing the Assistance-to-Nationals Fund. The flight from Lebanon was the largest single mass repatriation flight for land-based workers in Philippine history.
Sea-based overseas Filipinos from all over the world continue to return home as the DFA welcomed seafarers from Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Pakistan, Singapore and the USA.
Filipino workers Shanghai, China, Katmandu, Nepal, Zanzibar in Tanzania and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia were also welcomed by the DFA
There have been 9,001 COVID-19 positive cases among Filipinos from 65 countries worldwide, The DFA said 3,046 are still undergoing treatment while 5,32 have been discharged from medical facilities. The DFA said 634 Filipinos have died due to the pandemic. (Melo M. Acuña)
Filipinos from different parts of the world are undergoing processing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). (DFA Photos)
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