MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will repatriate Filipinos in India who want to go home when commercial flights resume, Philippine Ambassador to New Delhi Ramon Bagatsing Jr. said yesterday.
In an interview on dzMM radio, Bagatsing said there are still no direct flights between India and the Philippines and it is “logistically difficult” to start a repatriation flight since many countries have issued a travel ban on India.
The Philippines barred entry of travelers from India or with travel history to India in the last 14 days to prevent the transmission of a “double mutant” coronavirus strain.
At least 150 Filipinos have expressed willingness to be repatriated.
“It’s not yet that many. Although one Filipino wants to go home, we need to help him. On the logistics side, we need at least 150 passengers to make it viable,” Bagatsing said.
He said Filipinos can also be repatriated when there are enough passengers for a flight.
“No matter how much we want to come up with a repatriation flight, it is extremely difficult, logistically difficult because there are no flights allowed by the government,” he said.
The ambassador said Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. discussed with him the repatriation flight that could be scheduled in June or when the situation in India improves.
“Secretary Locsin said while there are no flights allowed yet, maybe by June or middle of the month it will be OK. Otherwise, we will wait until commercial flights resume,” he added.
At least 73 Filipinos in India have contracted COVID-19 while two have died.
The two, whose identities are being withheld, tested positive for COVID-19 on April 23 and died three days later.
There are around 2,000 Filipinos working or residing in India, Bagatsing said.
India is experiencing the world’s worst outbreak as daily cases have been rising, overwhelming the country’s health care system.
Authorities reported 392,488 new cases that pushed the total to 19.56 million. The virus has killed 215,542 people while the infection count has reached 1,95,57,457.