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The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Sunday that as of September 5, 2020, it had repatriated a total of 164,368 Filipinos abroad (OF), mostly workers displaced from countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. .
At least 36.4 percent of the total is found at sea and 63.6 percent on land.
In August alone, the DFA said it repatriated 42,593 OF, noting that it was tireless in its repatriation efforts despite the imposition of the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) in the first half of the month.
An overwhelming majority or 76.1 percent of the August returnees flew from the Middle East, while the rest came from Asia and the Pacific, the Americas, Europe and Africa.
The breakdown of returnees:
32,389 or 76.1 percent from the Middle East;
4,423 or 10.4 percent from Asia and the Pacific;
4,109 or 9.6 percent of the Americas;
1,571 or 3.7 percent of Europe; and
91 or 0.2 percent from Africa.
The DFA also mounted nine chartered flights in August that brought home distraught Filipinos from Malaysia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
These DFA-chartered flights were paid for through the National Assistance Fund.
The DFA through its Philippine Embassy in Tehran and in coordination with its partner government agencies, also brought home OFWs stranded in Uzbekistan in late August despite the lack of an embassy and consulate general in the country.
By September, the second batch of returnees from Lebanon, following the August 4 massive explosion in the port of Beirut, arrived safely Thursday night on a Philippine Airlines flight chartered by DFA.
Weekend reports from Philippine embassies and consulates record only one new confirmed Covid-19 case, no new recovery, and no new deaths among Filipinos abroad in the Asia-Pacific region.
No new reports were received from America, Europe and the Middle East.
