MECQ not stopping DFA from repatriating stranded OFWs

Even while Metro Manila and its nearby provinces are under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), the Philippine government has brought home an additional 8,924 overseas Filipinos this week, bringing the total number of repatriated Filipinos to 124,717.
 
Of the total, 39.8 percent (49,655 OFs) are sea-based while 60.2 percent (75,062 OFs) are land-based, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a report Saturday night.
 
This week, the DFA repatriated 3,660 overseas Filipinos from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through 13 special commercial repatriation flights and one DFA-chartered flight.
 
This was made possible as the UAE issued a deadline for those with expired tourist visas to leave the country by August 11, 2020.
 
The foreign affairs office also saw the return of 2,349 seafarers from all over the world including Bangladesh, Italy, Spain, Japan, Singapore, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago.
 
With the assistance of its various Foreign Service Posts and the Filipino community abroad, the DFA was able to facilitate the repatriation of stranded Filipinos from remote locations such as Mongolia, Palau, and the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
 
The DFA is currently working closely with its missions in Beirut and Tehran on the immediate repatriation of distressed Filipinos in Lebanon and Uzbekistan.