299 Filipinos Arrive Home from Ethiopia

CEBU CITY 21, August 2021 — A total of 299 distressed Filipinos arrived in the country from Ethiopia via a special flight (Ethiopian Airlines flight ETH8645) chartered by their employer and facilitated by the Department of Foreign Affairs on 20 August 2021, 9:30p.m., at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

The repatriates include workers from the Awash-Kombulcha-Hara Gebaya railway construction project of the Turkish Yapi Merkezi company. They were repatriated after the project was suspended. The Philippine Embassy in Cairo ensured that proper procedures were observed in facilitating the repatriation of our kababayan.

Twenty four (24) more Filipinos are due to return home once they complete their quarantine in Ethiopia.

“We wish to assure the public that our desk officers and staff, our special repatriation group covering the flights, and members of our foreign service posts work tirelessly to ensure that Filipinos affected by various travel restrictions throughout the world are given the chance to come home,” said Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola.

Upon arrival in Cebu, the repatriates were assisted by representatives from the DFA Consular Office Cebu, the Department of Health, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Philippine Coast Guard, and other members of the One Stop Shop (OSS) team. They were also briefed on the COVID-19 quarantine protocols.

All passengers yielded negative results in the RT-PCR COVID-19 test conducted at least 48 hours prior to their departure from Ethiopia. They will also undergo stringent facility-based quarantine provided by the Philippine government, in line with the health protocols set by the DOH- Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ), aside from another mandatory RT-PCR Testing for COVID-19. END