The DFA delivered on its promise and brought home a total of 50,887 overseas Filipinos this July. During the 14 July 2020 Congressional Hearing conducted by the Committee on Public Accounts, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Y. Arriola reported that the DFA expects to bring home around 50,000 overseas Filipinos for July. As the month drew to a close, the DFA achieved its target number of repatriates and brought the total number of repatriated Filipinos to 115,793 since the first COVID-related repatriation flight arrived from Wuhan in February 2020.
Of the 50,887 overseas Filipinos brought home by the DFA this month, 35,656 were from the Middle East – with the greatest number of repatriates arriving from the UAE (14,948), Saudi Arabia (11,249), and Qatar (4,664). A total of 6,925 OFs came from Asia, 4,943 from the Americas, 3,343 from Europe and 20 from Africa.
The DFA also organized 13 chartered flights this July which brought home 4,147 fellow Filipinos from Japan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, Malaysia and Vietnam. These chartered flights were shouldered by the DFA through its Assistance-to-Nationals Fund.
“More than any other time in Philippine history, we have embarked on a repatriation program of unprecedented scale in order to bring home our overseas Filipinos affected by the pandemic. Our duty is far from over as we sustain our efforts to fly home another hundred thousand fellow Filipinos who wish to be repatriated,” said Undersecretary Arriola.
The DFA eyes to repatriate an estimated 100,000 nationals abroad within the next two months.
“We continue to stand by our promise to bring home every Filipino who wants to come home,” added Undersecretary Arriola.
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