(Eagle News)-The Department of Foreign Affairs has said it has repatriated over 135,000 overseas Filipinos amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The DFA said the total 135,290 was after an additional 10,573 overseas Filipinos were brought home this week.
Of the total, 38.9 percent (52,639 overseas Filipinos) were sea-based while 61.1 percent (82,651 overseas Filipinos) were land-based.
Of this number, only this week, the DFA said it repatriated 8,112 overseas Filipinos from the Middle East through 27 special commercial repatriation flights and two DFA-chartered flights.
A total of 3,072 repatriates arrived from the United Arab Emirates.
Many of them, the DFA said, availed of the amnesty for overstaying residence and tourist visa holders in the Middle Eastern country.
The DFA also brought home Filipinos from Iraq and Israel this week.
As for seafarers, the DFA facilitated the return of 2,984 sea-based overseas Filipinos this week, including two medical repatriations from Seychelles and Brazil.
Earlier in the week, the DFA also brought home 250 stranded Filipinos in Papua New Guinea and Melbourne, Australia on board two special commercial repatriation flights.
This Monday, the DFA will welcome Filipino nationals from Lebanon on board a DFA-chartered flight, the first in a series of chartered flights organized by the DFA to bring home Filipinos affected by the explosion at the Beirut Port early this month.
“The DFA remains fully committed to bringing home our distressed nationals abroad wherever they are in the world,” the DFA said.