(Eagle News)–Over 200,000 overseas Filipinos have been repatriated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic until September, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
According to the DFA, of the 204,481, 33.98 percent or 69477 were sea-based, while 66.02 percent or 135,004 were land-based.
Of the total OFWs repatriated, 41892 were repatriated in September.
The regional breakdown is as follows:
31,217 or 74.5% from the Middle East;
4,226 or 10.1% from Asia and the Pacific;
3,666 or 8.8% from the Americas;
2,634 or 6.3% from Europe; and
149 or 0.3% from Africa.
According to the DFA, September also saw the goodwill mission of the DFA in Lebanon, which saw the Office of Presidential Protocol, and the Philippine delegation bring 5,000 boxes of relief goods for the Filipino community in Beirut.
The DFA said the team also brought medical supplies which were donated to two Lebanese hospitals and two nongovernment organizations that have been taking care of the Filipinos in Lebanon.
The DFA said the return flight brought home 317 OFWs, most of whom were household service workers affected by the economic crisis and the recent blast at the Port of Beirut.
Before September ended, the DFA said 16 stranded seafarers were also brought home from Xiamen, China “despite the country’s existing restrictions on the disembarkation of seafarers and the unavailability of commercial flights.”
“The repatriation was a product of months of negotiations and close coordination between the Philippine Consulate General in Xiamen, the Philippine Embassy in Beijing and the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs,” the DFA said.
Several DFA-chartered flights also brought home the more than a thousand Filipinos from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, Saudi Arabia this month, the DFA said, with all the chartered flights shouldered by the DFA’s Assistance-to-Nationals Fund.
“As the last quarter of the year starts, the DFA and its Foreign Service Posts will continue to facilitate repatriation flights to bring home our overseas Filipinos wherever they are in the world,” the DFA said.
