(Eagle News) — The Bureau of Immigration has said foreign nationals will continue their exodus for the duration of this year.
The bureau gave the prediction as it noted the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered travel restrictions worldwide.
“Similar to our overseas Filipino workers who wished to come home to their families during the pandemic, a lot of foreign nationals left as well,” Immigration commissioner Jaime Morente said, noting that the many businesses that closed “also affected the foreign community in the Philippines.”
He said almost 2 million foreign nationals departed the country from January to September.
Topping the list of departures were Koreans with more than 400,000 exits, Americans and Chinese with around 300,000 departures, and Japanese with more than 166,000 exits.
Morente said that a significant number of Chinese nationals have exited the country, too, with less than only 475,129 Chinese nationals in the Philippines as of mid-September.
He said 188,517 Chinese nationals arrived in the country from January to September 2020, while 292,669 Chinese nationals departed during the same period.
“In 2020, due to the pandemic, for the first time, we’ve seen more departures of foreign nationals than arrivals,” said Morente.
He said the exodus of foreign nationals will have a major impact in tourism efforts of the country.
“Areas that were once booming with foreign tourists, workers, or students are now empty. We’re hoping that little by little, the confidence of foreign nationals to visit our country, invest here, work here, or study here be renewed as we work to fight this pandemic,” he said.
