A total of 63 Filipinos from Qatar and Oman have safely returned to the Philippines as the government continues repatriation efforts amid rising tensions in the Middle East, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said.
The DMW reported that 31 repatriates arrived in Manila early Wednesday from Qatar. They were welcomed by officials from the DMW and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
Late Tuesday, another batch of 32 Filipinos, most of them overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), also returned to the country from Oman.
Philippine embassy officials, in coordination with the DMW and OWWA, facilitated the evacuation of the Filipinos by arranging cross-border travel and routing them through alternative airports that remained open for international flights.
“Ang airspace sa bansang pinanggalingan nila ay very limited kaya naghanap ng paraan to cross the border sa isang bansa na makakalipad sila, and now, they’re here,” DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said in a news release.
The repatriation efforts are ongoing as tensions escalate in the Middle East following the United States and Israel’s attacks on Iran and Iran’s retaliation.
