299 Filipinos arrive from Ethiopia

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 299 distressed Filipinos arrived in the country from Ethiopia on a special flight chartered by their employer, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said over the weekend.

The flight, facilitated by the DFA, arrived at the Mactan Cebu International Airport on Friday.

The Filipinos include workers from the Awash-Kombulcha-Hara Gebaya railway construction project of the Turkish Yapi Merkezi company. They were repatriated after the project was suspended.

Twenty-four more are due to return home once they complete their quarantine in Ethiopia.

All passengers yielded negative results in the RT-PCR coronavirus test conducted at least 48 hours prior to their departure from the African nation. They are undergoing stringent facility-based quarantine provided by the Philippine government, in line with the health protocols set by the Department of Health-Bureau of Quarantine, aside from another mandatory swab test for COVID-19.