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Koreans top the list of foreigners leaving the Philippines, according to the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
More than 400,000 Koreans had left, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said Monday.
He found that the exodus of foreigners would continue until the end of 2020.
From January to September, a total of 1.5 million foreigners arrived in the Philippines, just before travel restrictions were imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, he said, but almost 2 million left after many hiring companies foreigners will close due to the contraction of the economy.
The plight of foreigners is similar to that of Filipino workers abroad “who wanted to go home to their families during the pandemic,” Morente said.
“You can see the effect… areas that were once booming with foreign tourists, workers or students are now empty. We hope that little by little the confidence of foreigners will be renewed to visit our country, invest here, work here or study here while we work to combat this pandemic ”, he added.
Foreign tourists are still not allowed and Morales said he hoped the health crisis would be resolved soon “so that we can reactivate the tourism economy, which was severely affected by this pandemic.”
The second largest group of aliens to leave were the Americans and the Chinese with around 300,000, followed by the Japanese with more than 166,000.
According to BI’s figures for mid-September, fewer than 500,000 Chinese remain in the Philippines.
From 2013 to 2019, a total of 6.4 million Chinese arrived in the country, while more than 6.1 million left during the same period.
“In 2020, due to the pandemic, for the first time, we have seen more departures of foreigners than arrivals,” Morente said.
About 189,000 Chinese arrived in the country from January to September, and 292,669 left during the same period.
Morente believes that the exodus of foreigners will have a great impact on the country’s tourism efforts.
“The government has made significant progress in improving tourism. However, this pandemic proved to counter all previous efforts, ”he said.
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