Amid increasing air strikes, OFWs in Tripoli told to take precautions

Business Mirror

By
 Recto Mercene
 -

41

The Philippine Embassy in Libya has advised Filipinos residing or working near military facilities “to relocate if necessary while taking precautions” following the announcement by the Libyan National Army (LNA) that they will be carrying out more air strikes against military targets inside Tripoli.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), 40 people were killed and another 80 were wounded after an air strike at a migrant detention center in Tripoli on Wednesday.
The DFA said it is repeating the advisory issued earlier by the embassy in Tripoli shortly after the incident that took place in Tajoura District, about 5 kilometers from a hospital compound, where around 40 Filipino nurses and their dependents are staying.
There are an estimated 1,000 Filipinos in the Libyan capital and its immediate outskirts, most of them nurses and other hospital workers.
Ambassador-designate to Libya and concurrent Chargé d’affaires Elmer G. Cato said there were no Filipinos reported among the casualties.
“The detention center, which was located next to a military camp, housed mostly African migrants,” he said in his official Tweeter account.
Cato said the embassy remains concerned about the safety of more than 40 Filipino nurses and engineers who could not be convinced to temporarily leave their work places, which are in areas where fighting has been taking place.
“On Sunday, 11 Filipino nurses sought shelter at the Embassy after fighting again broke out near their hospital south of Tripoli. Another six Filipinos have requested assistance in getting repatriated due to the fighting,” Cato tweeted.
On the other hand, he said, 10 Filipino nurses from a hospital in southern Tripoli near where skirmishes have been taking place “were able to find their way out and made it safely to the embassy.”
“It was the soldiers who helped them find vehicles that took them from their hospital in the outskirts of Tripoli to the embassy where they are now safe,” Cato tweeted.
Cato said he discussed with Labor Attaché Adam Musa, Special Envoy Mario Chan and Embassy member Francis Enaje on how the embassy can extricate several Filipino workers from a hospital in southern Tripoli “very near where fighting has been taking place.”
Cato has been in the midst of the developments unfolding in Libya since he was assigned to Libya early this year. He, along with the rest of the embassy staff, has been holding fort at the Libyan Embassy to continue to provide assistance to the Filipinos in Tripoli.
Cato said he hopes that a huge Philippine flag they mounted on the roof of the embassy would be conspicuous enough for the combatants and preclude the possibility that the structure would be bombed.
Some of the Filipino migrant workers who were not able to stand the ongoing conflict have asked Cato’s help to be repatriated back to the Philippines.
So far, close to a hundred overseas Filipino workers have arrived in the country after being assisted by Cato’s group in Libya.

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