(Eagle News) — The Department of Foreign Affairs repatriated over 300,000 Filipinos in 2020.
The DFA said of the 327,511 overseas Filipinos repatriated last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 231,537 or 70.7 percent were land-based, coming from at least 90 countries.
Almost 100,000, or 95,974, were seafarers, from more than 150 cruise ships, oil tankers, and other bulk vessels.
Below is the breakdown of the repatriates traveling or transiting through the following regions based on DFA data:
Middle East – 228,893 or 69.89 percent
Asia & the Pacific – 36,868 or 11.26 percent
Americas – 30,971 or 9.46 percent
Europe – 28,909 or 8.83 percent
Africa – 1,870 or 0.57 percent
The DFA said the repatriations included a number of “firsts”– the mass repatriation of more than 500 Agrostudies students from Israel, the first repatriation of 92 OFWs from Benghazi, Libya since 2017, and the first-ever repatriation by sea from Indonesia of 40 Filipino fishermen via the BRP Tubbataha.
December, the department said, marked the highest monthly total of repatriated overseas Filipinos despite the cancellation of several flights.
According to the DFA, 51,770 in particular were repatriated for the month.
“Sweeper flights were also organized to bring home distressed overseas Filipinos from Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE, in time for the holiday season,” the department said.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Y. Arriola hailed DFA frontliners who “facilitated the return and provided airport assistance to hundreds of medical repatriates, victims of trafficking-in-persons, unaccompanied minor children, and senior citizens who were repatriated by the DFA this 2020.”
“As we start a new year, the DFA remains committed to its assistance-to-nationals mandate and renews its promise to bring home every Filipino who wishes to come home,” Arriola added.
