Number of Overseas Filipinos Repatriated from Kuwait Crosses the 7,000-Mark
(Kuwait PE photo)
KUWAIT 09 September 2020 — The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait has reached the 7,000-mark or a total of 7,116 repatriated overseas Filipinos to the Philippines since the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak began in Kuwait in March 2020.
A chartered Kuwait Airways flight, the 15th flight arranged by the Embassy since June 2020, left for Manila early morning on 06 September 2020. The chartered flight, which carried more than 310 overseas Filipinos, was granted clearance to land in Manila by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) upon the endorsement of the Embassy and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Through the initiative of the Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, who asked employers and recruitment agencies to pay for the one-way air tickets of their Filipino workers, the Embassy was able to mount these chartered flights at little cost to the Philippine government. The Embassy only paid for the tickets, through the DFA’s Assistance to Nationals (ATN) Fund, of those who literally had no resources left due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Kuwaiti government also repatriated undocumented and distressed Filipinos from Kuwait, including those who took part in the amnesty program last April 2020, as part of its preventive measures against COVID-19. A total of 2,466 Filipinos were flown home between 25 March and 03 June 2020, at the expense of the Kuwaiti government. END
For more information, visit https://www.kuwaitpe.dfa.gov.ph https://www.philembassykuwait.gov.kw or https://www.facebook.com/PHinKuwait/ or https://twitter.com/PHinKuwait