The total number of Filipinos abroad who have been repatriated back to the Philippines since the outbreak of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic last February has now reached 185,650, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Sunday.
During the past week alone, the Philippine government brought home an additional 11,611 overseas Filipinos amid the onslaught of the pandemic.
A breakdown of the number of repatriates showed that 65,048 (35.04%) are sea-based while 120,602 (64.96%) are land-based.
The DFA said Filipino nationals from the Middle East comprised most of the repatriates this week at 8,132 while arrivals from Europe stood at 1,299 including three medical repatriates from Turkey, Malta, and Spain.
A total of 1,089 overseas Filipinos went home from the Americas this week while 981 repatriates arrived from Asia including the two rescued Filipino crew members of the missing Gulf Livestock-1 from Japan and eight Filipino seafarers who had been stranded in the waters off Fujian Province, China due to travel restrictions brought about by COVID-19.
Meanwhile, some 110 OFWs arrived from Africa, 109 of whom were working in Algeria.