By Roy Mabasa
The Philippine Embassy in Morocco on Tuesday said no Filipinos were among the more than 7,800 cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections in the North African country.
“We are so lucky that no one from our kababayans is infected. They all followed the health procedures given by the (Moroccan) government,” Philippine Ambassador to Rabat Maria Agnes Cervantes said in an interview at the Laging Handa briefing.
Based on the latest mapping conducted by the embassy, there are more than 1,000 Filipinos currently in Morocco working in almost all industries, from highly skilled to household help.
Cervantes said they have been receiving requests for repatriation from a small number of Filipinos displaced from their jobs following the outbreak of COVID-19.
“They’re asking for our help to be repatriated due to their economic woes brought by the lockdown and loss of jobs,” she said.
The envoy assured that the embassy continues to communicate with members of the Filipino community through the various online platforms to ensure that their concerns are attended to.
“We have established our connections with them. We communicate through Viber or Whatsapp where we also send them notes during the lockdown,” she added.
Currently, restriction in Morocco is slowly easing down after weeks of stringent lockdown measures implemented to avert the spread of the disease.