DFA brings home 571 more Filipino seafarers

DFA brings home 571 more Filipino seafarers
Apr 19, 2020 https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/4/19/more-filipino-seafarers-arrive...

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 19) - More than 16,000 Filipino seafarers working abroad have been brought home by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) amid growing risks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DFA said a group of 571 Filipino seafarers arrived in Manila Sunday morning.

The seafarer returnees, crew members of the Norwegian Breakaway, were flown home onboard two chartered flights from Orlando, Florida to Manila, the DFA said in a press release.

Norwegian Cruise Lines paid for the chartered flights, the DFA said.

It said the repatriates underwent thorough health inspection by the Bureau of Quarantine upon disembarkation.

"Further, they will be subjected to 14-day facility based quarantine as certified to by the Department of Health," the DFA said.

CF Sharp, the local manning agency of Norwegian Breakaway, provided land transportation to bring the repatriates to their assigned DOH-approved and inspected quarantine facilities.