60 more Pinoys evacuated from troubled Libya


Sixty Filipinos will return from Libya on Friday and Sunday after they were evacuated by the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli due to the ongoing violence there, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The DFA said 27 of these Filipinos are scheduled to arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon on board flight QR932, while 33 others will arrive on Sunday via the same flight on the same time.

According to the DFA, 25 of these Filipinos were based in Benghazi and eastern Libya, while 35 others were from western and central Libya. They were evacuated on June 3 and June 4.

Their arrival brings the total number of Filipino repatriates from Libya to 5,058, leaving an estimated 3,496 Filipinos remaining in the war-torn country.

Libya was recently rocked by a suicide bombing incident claimed by the Islamic State in a security checkpoint west of Misrata, killing five people and injuring eight others.

Another attack in Zawiya last March claimed the life of a Filipino and injured three other Filipino oil workers.

The DFA urged all remaining Filipinos in Libya to contact the embassy to register for its mandatory repatriation program to avoid further casualties.

Libya is under Alert Level 4, which mandates mandatory evacuation. Its official government has been based in the east since losing control of the capital in 2014 at the hands of an armed faction, which set up a rival administration and parliament.—Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

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