FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Saturday alerted authorities to the influx of repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFW) from Covid-battered host countries. They are expected to arrive in a few days, and finding quarantine sites for them for the next 14 days should be priority, he said.
“4,000+ repatriated Filipino crew in the next 3 weeks. 530 from Costa Favolosa & Costa Magica arrive tomorrow and there are no hotels or motels to book them in,” he said in a tweet.
He said the Department of Tourism (DOT) has a list of accommodations, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) must approve the items on the list.
Last week, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approved Resolution 14, which authorizes OWWA to issue the certifications “it may deem appropriate to the concerned OFWs.”
The task force has directed OWWA “to provide returning OFWs free temporary accommodation in hotels amid the implementation of Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.”
Task force spokesman Karlo Nograles, in a televised speech on state-run PTV-4, said: “It means distressed OFWs could be accommodated in hotels or similar establishments.”
Two luxury cruise ships earlier dropped anchor offshore and were refused to berth in Florida because health authorities fear that sick passengers on board could spread the coronavirus. These are Costa Magica and Costa Favolosa, which have an estimated 1,000 Filipino seafarers between them.
Costa Luminosa, on the other hand, has docked in Savonna, Italy, and will soon repatriate the hundreds of Filipino crew members on board.
A fourth cruise ship, the MS Zaandam, is on the way to Florida, coming from South America, with 203 Filipino crew members.
“Most of the crew members are to be flown to Manila, especially those who have finished their contracts,” according to travel consultant Manny Geslani.
“Included are that those who have consumed at least five months of their contracts and those who have volunteered to be repatriated to Manila,” he added.
The ships are still off the port of Miami and those who will fly back home are still waiting for Carnival Corporation, the owner of Costa Lines, to arrange for charter planes to fly home around 2,000 Filipinos on board the eight Carnival ships, Geslani added.
He said it has been arranged that the OFWs “will be taken by buses to Orlando, Florida, where chartered planes will take them in for the flight to Manila.”
The repatriation of Filipino seamen is being undertaken by Carnival Corporation in cooperation with Magsaysay Shipping, the local agent of Costa Cruises.
Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Edgardo Menez said they assume there are about 300 Filipino seamen aboard the Costa Magica.
“Magsaysay Manning would have the exact numbers but for Costa Magica, we’re assuming 300 Filipino crew. In both cases, it isn’t clear yet how many have been diagnosed with the virus.”
He said, “they usually inform the DFA just before repatriation. No dates set for both at this point.”
Image credits: David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP, AP/Wilfredo Lee, AP/Daniel Cole