A total of 370 Filipinos who were repatriated by the Philippine missions in the UAE have arrived in Manila on Monday. Philippine consul-general Paul Raymund Cortes told Gulf News it was the first chartered flight sponsored by the Philippine government and all passengers were not required to pay for their air tickets.
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#Filipinos #OFWs #coronavirus
Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/30RT3bd
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
#Filipinos #OFWs #coronavirus
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NewsTranscript
00:00This is our first UAE repatriation flight to the Philippines sponsored by the Philippine
00:12government.
00:13This is the first flight because this is the first time that the Philippine government
00:17is chartering a flight from the UAE to the Philippines.
00:20The tickets are free of charge to anybody who asks for repatriation.
00:25None of them paid for their tickets.
00:27The government is giving them the chance to go home paid for by the Philippine government.
00:35Finally we're going to be able to go home now.
00:38Thank you very much to our government for assisting us OFWs and hopefully all of the
00:45distressed Filipinos out here will also be able to come back home soon.
00:49About a third of them are stranded tourists in the UAE, meaning they're on tourist or
00:56visitor's visa and were not able to go home following the lockdown in late March.
01:02And some of them are also cancelled visa holders, those who were terminated by their employers
01:10because of the COVID crisis.
01:12I've been in Dubai since February 16 and now I'm outside of the airport waiting for my
01:17repatriation flight finally because my visa expired a month ago and it really feels good
01:24that I'm going to be able to finally go home again.
01:28Hopefully next year we can set up plans again and go back here in Dubai and tour some more
01:33because we weren't able to do that for the past four months he's been here.
01:40Hopefully we do get to mount more in the next couple of weeks and hopefully bring more of
01:46our fellow Filipinos back home as well.
01:48Actually I was just going to drop them but I'll come back as my husband is here.
01:54But you know financially it's so hard for us now to be together but hopefully things
02:00go well.
02:01We would like to wish our Kababayans the best of luck as they retry to come up with a life
02:07back home.
02:08I know some of them have been living in the UAE for quite some time but the crisis has
02:13forced everybody to rethink its strategies and we do hope our Kababayans are able to
02:20come up with the economic opportunities back home in the Philippines.
02:24At the same time, as consistent with the embassy's and the consulate's plea for our or call for
02:31our Kababayans who wish to go home, please do not hesitate to reach out to the consulate
02:35or to the embassy as we hope to come up with or mount another chartered flight for our
02:42Kababayans to return to the country.