The cruise ship Sun Princess which set sail from Australia in order to return its Filipino and Indonesian crew members back home is facing repatriation problems. Sun Princess is currently off the coast of Manila however some Filipino crew onboard report that they are not allowed to disembark the ship. According to them, the government is not allowing the disembarkation process to begin and they haven’t received any official announcement by the local authorities.

About 225 Filipinos aboard Sun Princess are waiting to disembark and start the mandatory quarantine in the Philipines before returning to their homes. The ship has not reported any positive case of the virus among the crew and all onboard are in good health. 

We received the following message: “The only thing that I know is that the Philippines Government started re-calling the repatriation of the Filipino Seafarers. Sun Princess came from Australia here in the Philippines just to bring home Filipino Crew.

But what happening right now is some bad news came from their captain that they are not allowing to Disembark the Crew for unknown reason maybe their Afraid that maybe some Of the crew has a Virus. We just want our government to allow us to Disembark and start the Mandatory quarantine because we are already almost 30days at sea.”

According to some Filipino crew members who are waiting to be repatriated, the quarantine capacity for seafarers has reached the maximum level in the Philipines.

Today the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) issued a public notice regarding the return of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), whether sea-based or land-based:

“Foreign cruise ships carrying Filipino crew shall be allowed to dock in ports in Manila and may be used as quarantine facilities for said Filipino crew members, subject to the guidelines to be issued by the member agencies of the Sub Task Group for the Repatriation of OFWs.

The use of the cruise ship as a quarantine site will be determined by the cruise ship's suitability as a quarantine facility and the cruise ship owners' willingness and capability to financially sustain the operation of the quarantine program in their ship.

The above are pursuant to Resolutions No. 23 and 24 issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) dated 13 and 15 April 2020, respectively.

While the DFA works hand-in-hand with various foreign governments and cruise ship companies with regard to the repatriation of OFWs, the quarantine facilities and program will be determined and facilitated by the Department of Health (DOH) and Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ)."