The Bureau of Immigration said the mass departure of foreigners in the country will continue until the end of 2020 amid the threat of coronavirus 2019.
Immigration Jaime Morente said that from January to September 2020, only 1.5 million foreigners arrived in the Philippines, and of whom the majority arrived before the full implementation of the travel restrictions. In contrast, almost two million foreigners departed the country during the same period.
The exodus, according to Morente, is the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has triggered travel restrictions worldwide.
“Similar to our overseas Filipino workers who wished to come home to their families during the pandemic, a lot of foreign nationals left as well,” Morente said.
“A lot of businesses closed, which also affected the foreign community in the Philippines.”
Topping the list of departures were the Koreans with more than 400,000 exits, Americans and Chinese with around 300,000, and the Japanese with more than 166,000.
Morente said a significant number of Chinese nationals had left the country due to the pandemic.
According to Immigration data, as of mid-September less than 500,000 Chinese nationals were in the Philippines.
Records show that from 2013 to 2019, a total of 6.4 million Chinese nationals arrived in the country, while more than 6.1 million departed during the same period.
“In 2020, due to the pandemic, and for the first time, we’ve seen more departures of foreign nationals than arrivals,” Morente said.
He said 188,517 Chinese nationals arrived in the country from January to September 2020. On the other hand, 292,669 Chinese nationals departed during the same period.
“If we look at the difference of the figures from 2013 to 2020, only 475,129 Chinese nationals from this period were left in the country,” Morente said. He clarified, however, that the figures did not reflect those who came in before 2013.
Morente sees that the exodus of foreign nationals will have a major impact in the tourism efforts of the country.
“The government had made significant strides in improving tourism,” Morente said.
“However, this pandemic proved to counter all previous efforts.”