23 Filipinos repatriated from Lebanon

MANILA, Philippines—Twenty-three Filipinos “in distress”, including a child, were repatriated from Lebanon, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.

The Filipinos, who mostly defied an existing deployment ban, arrived  in Manila from Beirut on Christmas eve,  the DFA said in a statement.

The Philippine Embassy in Beirut, together with the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, arranged for their repatriation, it said.

“Almost all of the 23 OFW-repatriates have violated the total deployment ban to Lebanon, which was implemented on 18 June 2007. They were illegally recruited and they arrived in Beirut in 2009 and 2010, some of them arriving in the last three months,” the DFA said.

The foreign affairs department said the Filipino workers sought shelter in government’s Filipino Workers Resource Center in Beirut after they encountered labor-related problems.

“The Embassy ATN Team and the POLO-OWWA worked together in securing from their employers or the Lebanese immigration office the exit clearances for the OFW repatriates without payment of the deployment cost of the employer,” the DFA said.