PH Embassy in Yangon Brings Home 55 Filipinos to Manila

Filipinos get ready to board Philippines Airlines Repatriation Flight PR8524. (Yangon PE photo)

YANGON 31 May 2021 – The Philippine Embassy in Myanmar, in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Philippine Airlines repatriated 55 distressed Filipinos (37 male and 18 females) to Manila on 29 May 2021 through a special chartered sweeper flight that also repatriated Filipinos from Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Bangkok, Thailand. The repatriation flight was organized to assist stranded Filipinos in Myanmar due to the unavailability of commercial flights brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most of the Filipinos who were repatriated resided in Yangon. Six came from Thahtay Kyun Island in the Thanintharyi Region (1,275 km from Yangon) who had to travel by sea to Kawthaung and then by air just to reach Yangon for the flight. The Embassy also provided temporary hotel accommodation for these Filipinos from Thahtay Kyun and assisted eight Filipinos in paying for overstay fees. Aside from Filipinos, the Embassy in Yangon was also able to repatriate its first pet – a domestic short-haired cat named Jon Snow White who is a treasured companion of a Filipino woman also on board the flight.

The sweeper flight is scheduled to arrive at the NAIA Terminal 2 at around 6:00 p.m. (Manila time) on the same date.

This is the fifth government-funded repatriation flight since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sixteenth Philippine Embassy-organized flight to repatriate Filipinos from Yangon. END

Assistance-To-Nationals Officer Ma. Alyssa Arcilla assists Filipinos with documentary requirements for their arrival in Manila. (Yangon PE photo)

Jon Snow White, a domestic short-haired cat, is last to board the repatriation flight. (Yangon PE photo)

For more information, visit https://www.yangonpe.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHinMyanmar.