DFA starts evacuation of Filipinos from Libya



The Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday began evacuating Filipino workers from the Libyan capital of Tripoli after two weeks of armed hostilities.
In a statement, the DFA said the first batch consisted of seven Filipinos—three hospital workers and four students.
"They were evacuated by the Philippine embassy this morning to Tunisia where they will be repatriated to the Philippines," the DFA said.
Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Elmer Cato said 13 more Filipinos who requested assistance in getting repatriated are expected to be evacuated to Tunisia in the next few days.
The DFA said it shouldered the cost of repatriating the four students from a Islamic school in Tripoli while the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) paid for the airfare of the three employees of the Ali Omar Ashkar Hospital outside Tripoli.

Of the estimated 1,000 Filipinos in Tripoli, only 20 have expressed intention to leave even as the Philippine government raised crisis alert level 3, which calls for voluntary repatriation of workers due to worsening security condition in Libya.
Libya does not have a functioning government and is plagued by civil unrest and armed hostilities.
On Tuesday, a Filipino worker was injured in a rocket attack in Tripoli.
Rolando Torres narrowly survived the barrage of rockets that struck his home in Tripoli late Tuesday night.
Torres, who hails from Nueva Ecija and has been working in Tripoli since 2006, was wounded in the forehead.
"He now wants to go home," said Cato, who came to pick up the Filipino worker.
Despite repeated appeals from the Philippine government to leave, many of the Filipinos in Libya continued to hold on to their jobs despite the widespread violence, citing lack of economic opportunities back home.
The DFA said it will continue to enforce voluntary evacuation and even called on the relatives of those Filipinos who are in Libya to convince their loved ones to return to the Philippines as the violence and armed conflict showed no sign of easing. —KBK, GMA News

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more