DFA Repatriates 200K Overseas Filipinos as September Ends

PASAY CITY 04 October 2020 — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) capped off the month of September by crossing the 200k-mark in the number of repatriated overseas Filipinos (OFs) since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of today, the DFA has brought home a total of 204,481 OFs from all over the world. A total of 69,477 (33.98%) of these OFs are sea-based while 135,004 (66.02%) are land-based.

For September alone, the DFA repatriated 41,892 overseas Filipinos - an overwhelming majority of whom came from the Middle East.

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.

September also saw the goodwill mission of the DFA in Lebanon. Together with the Office of Presidential Protocol, led by Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs and Chief of Presidential Protocol Robert E.A. Borje, the Philippine delegation brought 5,000 boxes of relief goods for the Filipino community in Beirut. The team also brought medical supplies which were donated to two Lebanese hospitals and two nongovernment organizations which have been taking care of OFs in Lebanon. 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, 16 stranded seafarers were also brought home by the DFA 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.

Finally, several DFA-chartered flights brought home more than a thousand of our distressed OFs from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, Saudi Arabia this September. All these chartered flights were 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. END

Presidential Assistant on Foreign Affairs and Chief of Presidential Protocol Robert E.A. Borje, on behalf of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, hands over 5,000 boxes of relief goods to the Filipino communities in Lebanon and medical supplies to Lebanese beneficiaries during a ceremonial turnover held at the Philippine Embassy in Beirut on 25 September 2020 (Photo by DFA-OSCR)

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) welcomes home 317 Filipinos from Lebanon who joined the turnaround DFA-chartered PAL flight on 26 September 2020 (Photo by DFA-OUMWA)

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) welcomes home 16 stranded Filipino seafarers and three land-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from China on 29 September 2020 (Photo by DFA-OUMWA)