THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) brought home another 8,831 overseas Filipinos (OFs) this week including three Filipinos with chronic diseases.
This brings the total number of repatriated OFs to 254,785 since the DFA began its COVID-related repatriation efforts in February 2020.
More than 87% or 7,715 of this week’s repatriates arrived from the Middle East. Six hundered eleven OFs meanwhile came home from Asia-Pacific, 503 from Europe and 2 from the Americas.
This week, the DFA chartered a Philippine Airlines flight to Guangzhou, China and brought home 86 distressed overseas Filipinos from various regions in China, including a medical stretcher case. The Philippine Embassy in Beijing and Consulates General in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Xiamen worked seamlessly to get the repatriates in their respective jurisdictions to Guangzhou, China where they boarded the chartered flight. With the assistance of the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, the repatriation flight landed safely last Wednesday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Despite the pandemic, the DFA successfully assisted in the return of 151 Filipino deportees from Malaysia who landed in Zamboanga City this Thursday. Three OFs with chronic illness were also medically repatriated from UAE, Bahrain, and Oman. Finally, various Philippine Foreign Service Posts helped in the return of overseas Filipinos from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Vietnam, and Japan.
“Today, the DFA is scheduled to welcome two DFA-chartered flights from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Dili, Timor-Leste which will bring home around 370 distressed OFs from the two countries,” the DFA said.
The DFA estimates that another 90,000 Filipinos will be repatriated before the end of the year.
