Riyadh – A total of 126 distressed Filipinos were repatriated to their country yesterday evening, Philippines' Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on its website.
Hjayceelyn Quintana, Philippines' ambassador to the UAE, said this was the fifth mass repatriation to be conducted by the Philippine Embassy during the 2018 UAE Immigration Amnesty Period.
Since January 2018, Ambassador Quintana said the Philippines Embassy had repatriated 1,765 Filipino nationals, 1,014 of whom were sheltered at the Philippine Embassy while 751 were walk-in clients. Many are illegal recruitment victims, it said in a statement on Thursday.
The UAE is now implementing a three-month amnesty period, from August 1, 2018 to October 31, 2018, that offers overstaying and/or absconded expatriates the chance to rectify their immigration status and apply for a six-month long jobseeker's visa or to return to their home countries with their immigration fees waived.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Philippine Consulate-General in Dubai are assisting Filipinos during this period whether they opt to stay in the UAE or opt for repatriation back to the Philippines.