The Philippine Embassy in New Delhi is facing difficulty in repatriating Filipinos in India at this time due to the existing travel restrictions for both inbound and outbound passengers.
Speaking at the regular virtual press briefing in Malacañang, Ambassador Ramon Bagatsing Jr. said they will have to wait for clearances to be issued before repatriation can proceed.
“Logistically it’s difficult for us to send our kababayans home because of the travel ban not only in our country but in other countries as well. So even without us issuing a travel ban, there is a de facto travel ban,” he said.
Even if the Filipino repatriates will take a commercial flight going home, he explained that many countries would not allow the plane to make a transit or stopover especially those coming from India.
There are around 50 Filipinos who have signified their intention to be repatriated back to the Philippines out of the more or less 1,200 nationals scattered all over India. The majority of these numbers are housewives and OFWs working in different sectors like education, services, and tech companies.
“We will wait for clearances and hopefully, once these clearances are secured, then we can send some of our kababayans back home,” the Filipino diplomat said.
Bagatsing said the Embassy, with the assurance of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr., is prepared to do everything to repatriate Filipino nationals at the “appropriate time”.
So far, the Embassy has received reports of about 73 COVID positive cases among Filipinos in India. Bagatsing said they provided these individuals with all the information and the numbers that they can communicate with the Embassy,
“What’s important is access and the lines of communication are open. So they can get in touch with us through Facebook and then email and text,” he said.
The latest figures from the online COVID-19 monitoring platform Worldometers showed that India has 19,925,604 confirmed cases, 218,959 fatalities, and 16,293,003 recoveries.
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