50,000 stranded OFWs to fly home this month

Divina Nova Joy Dela Cruz
ByDivina Nova Joy Dela    Cruz

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) plans to bring home 50,557 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded abroad by the end of July, Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola told lawmakers on Tuesday.


Overseas Filipino workers. DFA Photo
The target was set after the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) allowed more flights, Arriola said.
In June, the DFA reported that 167,626 OFWs, including 88,000 in Saudi Arabia, had been stranded because of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
If the government would fly home 50,000 OFWs this month, the DFA said it would repatriate the remaining 117,049 in two months.
“We think that we can bring them home in a month and a half or in two months but, of course, that number will still increase because if we do not find a vaccine,” Arriola told lawmakers during the hearing of the Committee on Public Accounts Arriola said the DFA repatriated 82,057 Filipinos as of July 13.
The official warned that the repatriation fund has been depleted, and there remains only P232 million or 23.2 percent of the P1-billion fund.
“I think half of this will be used for the next two weeks and by mid-August, we will not have funds anymore,” she said.
Each chartered flight that carries 350 passengers costs P13 million to P14 million. Aside from repatriation expenses, Arriola said the DFA had an increased utilization of 72.5 percent due to the Covid-19 pandemic for welfare and medical assistance, and temporary accommodation.
While Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has committed to realign the budget for the retrofitting of the DFA building, it will not be enough to cover the cost of repatriation.
Covid-19 infection of foreign service posts and personnel were also cited as a challenge in attending to the needs of OFWs, Arriola said, adding that funding is needed for testing, quarantine sites, new shelters, and wards.
“We have to get new shelters, your honor, and new quarantine sites, and to have funding for testing because our wards, our shelters all over the Middle East are not ready for this Covid pandemic. Some of them have to share beds. So, because of physical distancing, we have to get new facilities to be able to prevent the wards from infecting each other,” Arriola said.

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