DFA brings home 1.9K distressed OFWs from UAE

LOOK: PR 8659 from Dubai just landed at NAIA with 348 passengers including 1 stretcher case and 108 pregnant women. @teddyboylocsin @DFAPHL @ph_opafa pic.twitter.com/h8Nl6nqn71

— Sarah Lou Ysmael Arriola (@slyarriola) July 1, 2021

MANILA – Around 1,920 distressed Filipinos were flown home from the United Arab Emirates amid existing restrictions last month, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported Thursday.

The recent batch was a group of 347 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who left Dubai on June 30 and arrived July 1 via Philippine Airlines (PAL).

It was the third chartered flight in June alone especially mounted by the DFA for UAE-based Filipinos.

All passengers of DFA repatriation flights are required to undergo reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test 48 hours before the flight.

“The Duterte government continues to help our kababayan (countrymen) who are stranded or distressed in the UAE. We have and we will continue mounting chartered flights until we have successfully repatriated those in need,” DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola said in a news release.

On June 2, a Cebu Pacific flight brought home 364 land-based Filipino workers, while PAL transported 322 on June 17.

The DFA also thanked local manning agencies in helping organize the repatriation of sea-based workers.

Three flights arranged by the agencies arrived from the UAE also last month with a total of 886 seafarers.

Two more flights arranged by a local manning agency and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration will land on July 5 and 10 while an estimated 350 OFWs are expected to arrive on July 17.

“We are not only firming up plans but executing these plans swiftly to bring them home at the soonest possible time, in accordance with the instructions of the President,” Arriola added.