411 OFWs repatriated from Hong Kong, Myanmar, Japan arrive in Philippines

Four hundred eleven overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from Hong Kong, Myanmar and Japan seeking repatriation due to the COVID-19 pandemic have arrived in the country, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported.

A total of 190 stranded OFWs in Hong Kong, mostly household service workers, arrived on June 27 and 29, 2020 via Cathay Pacific Airlines.

Their contracts were either terminated or have ended, and their flights back to the Philippines were canceled several times. The group included several pregnant women, a couple of medical cases, and a repatriate with an expired visa.

Seventeen stranded Filipinos in Myanmar meanwhile arrived on July 5 via special repatriation flight from Yangon to Manila, organized by the Philippine Embassy in Yangon and Myanmar Airways International (MAI).

Most of them either lost their jobs, or their contracts were not renewed by their employers.

Four of the OFWs from Hong Kong were working at a hotel in Kawthaung, a town located in the Tanintharyi region of Myanmar. Their hotel had been negatively impacted by the pandemic due to lack of tourists.

The other four were pregnant women.

Another batch of 204 Filipino tourists, students, and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) stranded in Japan have returned home via a chartered flight on July 4.

Some of them came as far as Okinawa.

This brings the total of those repatriated by the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo to 815 individuals since February. — Jamil Santos/BM, GMA News