After nearly seven months since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in February this year, the Philippine government has repatriated a total of 204,481 overseas Filipinos composed mainly of sea-based and land-based workers from all over the world.  

In a report released on Sunday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said a total of 69,477 (33.98%) of these repatriated overseas Filipinos are sea-based while 135,004 (66.02%) are land-based.

For September alone, the government repatriated 41,892 overseas Filipinos -- an overwhelming majority of whom came from the Middle East.

The regional breakdown is as follows: 31,217 (74.5%) from the Middle East; 4,226 (10.1%) from Asia and the Pacific; 3,666 (8.8%) from the Americas; 2,634 (6.3%) from Europe; and 149 (0.3%) from Africa.

Before the end of September, the government brought home 16 stranded seafarers from Xiamen, China who spent almost six months quarantined onboard their vessels. 

Also last month, a Philippine team flew to Lebanon on a goodwill mission bringing with them 5,000 boxes of relief goods distributed to the Filipino community and medical supplies that were donated to two Lebanese non-government organizations and two hospitals in the aftermath of the deadly twin explosions last August 4.

The return flight of the team brought home 317 OFWs, most of whom were household service workers affected by the economic crisis in Lebanon.