Infants, stranded fishermen among latest repatriates

Based on the department’s latest data, a total of 12,022 Filipinos have been repatriated in recent week, 8,895 of them were from the Middle East, 1,806 from the Asia-Pacific, 677 from Europe, and 644 from the Americas. (File Photo By Patrick Roque, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA – Three babies who underwent a liver transplant in India and 15 infants from Kuwait were among the latest repatriates last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Sunday.

Based on the department’s latest data, a total of 12,022 Filipinos have been repatriated in recent week, 8,895 of them were from the Middle East, 1,806 from the Asia-Pacific, 677 from Europe, and 644 from the Americas.

These figures bring the total number of repatriates above 100,000 since the effort began in February this year.

Aside from the repatriated infants, the DFA also facilitated the return of 111 seafarers from Fujian, China.

The stranded Filipinos came from nine different Chinese fishing vessels forced to anchor in the high seas for several months due to coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) restrictions imposed by countries around the world.

They arrived on July 23.

The first repatriation flight from New Zealand since April brought home some 280 Filipinos, many of whom are senior citizens.

A DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs-organized special repatriation flight, in cooperation with flag carrier Philippine Airlines, brought home stranded Filipinos from Vietnam, composed of seafarers, PAL ticket holders, and overseas Filipino workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Some of them have been waiting for a flight home since May.

Among the repatriates from Vietnam was Nadie Repil, a fisherman who was lost at sea for a month before he was rescued by a Vietnamese fishing vessel.

While some 1,400 overseas Filipinos were brought home from Malaysia, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia on board four DFA-chartered flights paid for by the Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) Fund, others were brought through long hours of negotiation, inter-agency cooperation and a number of online meetings, not to mention the number of DFA personnel on the ground to make sure the process is as seamless and smooth as possible.