The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) estimates that about 300,000 seafarers are still onboard ships due to crew change crisis caused by government border and travel restrictions. An equal number of unemployed seafarers are still waiting ashore, taking the total number to approximately 600,000 seafarers affected by the crew-change crisis. This crisis requires all governments to develop a unified solution that takes serious the needs of the world’s seafarers. 40,000 seafarers repatriatedMeanwhile, a total of 40, 540 seafarers were repatriated by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic in February. Most of the recently repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were from the Netherlands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States.

Source: Manila Times July 21, 2020 16:26 UTC