53 jobless Filipinos repatriated from Thailand

Fifty-three overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who lost employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic were repatriated from Thailand over the weekend, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday. The DFA said the repatriates were mostly working in Thailand’s education and tourism industry but lost employment due to the pandemic and were facing difficulties in supporting themselves while looking for jobs. Apart from the OFWs, the repatriates also included infants, children and those with medical conditions. They arrived in Manila aboard a Philippine government repatriation flight initiated by the DFA and facilitated by the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok. The latest repatriation flight brought the total number of repatriates from Thailand to 808 since the Embassy’s first repatriation flight in April 2020.

—TINA G. SANTOS