DFA: Over 7K overseas Pinoys repatriated from January to November

By ANNA FELICIA BAJO, GMA Integrated News Published December 26, 2022 10:13am More than 7,000 overseas Filipinos have been repatriated this year as part of the Marcos administration’s efforts to improve its response to the needs of Filipinos abroad. Citing data from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Palace said a total of 7,880 overseas Filipinos were repatriated from January to November of this year through the efforts led by the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA). In its accomplishment report presented to Malacañang, the DFA said 57.67% of this total number were from the Middle East in which 942 OFs and distressed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) were from Kuwait while 70 were from Sri Lanka. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. earlier said the coordination between the DFA and the newly created Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) would strengthened to provide assistance to OFs. “Lalo nating paiigtingin ang tambalang ito upang makapagbigay nang mabilis at karampatang serbisyo at tulong sa mga overseas Filipinos na nangangailangan ng tulong,” the President said in a meeting with the Filipino community in Cambodia in November during the ASEAN Summit and Related Summits. (We will further improve this partnership to provide better services and assistance to overseas Filipinos.) Marcos has since described OFWs as the pride of the Philippines who “bring honor to the Filipino nation.” Further, in its report, the DFA said it has issued a total of 3,589,620 passports from January to October 2022. It had opened an additional six temporary off-site passport services facilities. As of November this year, the agency has issued 55,574 visas and 551,635 Apostille certificates. On bilateral engagements, agreements were also signed when it comes to defense, culture, counterterrorism, trade and investment, technology and data protection, and migrant workers protection. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News

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