20 more Filipino workers from Syria arrive in Manila
MANILA, Philippines—Another 20 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Syria, all of whom availed of the government’s free repatriation program, arrived in the country late afternoon Sunday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
The OFWs – accompanied by Charge d’Affaires Olivia Palala of the Philippine Embassy in Damascus – arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 5:12 p.m. Sunday on board Emirates Airlines flight EK 332.
At the NAIA Terminal 1, the repatriates were welcomed by the staff of the DFA and the labor department-attached Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
Another 16 OFWs from Syria were scheduled to arrive at the NAIA later on, on Sunday night, on board Emirates Airlines flight EK 334.
The two batches of OFWs brought to 1,009 the total number of Philippine nationals to be repatriated from the strife-torn Middle East country, according to the DFA.
“The OFWs’ airfares were shouldered entirely by the government,” Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesperson, said.
Hernandez disclosed that “at least nine of the OFWs came from the Syrian protest hubs of Homs, Hama and Idli while nine others, all overstaying OFWs, were earlier released from the Kaffarseuseh prison in Damascus.”
Last week, 21 OFWs from Syria were flown home by the foreign office.
Early this month, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario deployed the DFA’s “rapid response team,” which also grouped personnel from the Philippine National Police and the Department of Labor and Employment, to “help out in the extraction and repatriation of OFWs in Syria’s conflict areas.”
Hernandez said the foreign office would evacuate more than 160 OFWs based in the conflict areas, where “violence has become very alarming.”
The embassy has so far received nearly 280 repatriation applicants from the four conflict areas, he noted.
The mission, he added, has been “working on the instruction of Secretary Del Rosario to fully and effectively implement Crisis Alert Level 4 (mandatory or forced repatriation of OFWs) due to the worsening security situation in Syria.”
The DFA chief said earlier that based on new developments in the protest hubs, they “may need to go one step further and resort to a strategy of extraction.”
He explained that “rather than reduce the operating teams to help our distressed nationals, we are expanding to do what is necessary.”
The DFA has “anticipated a probable escalation of violence, which resulted in our bringing in an additional team of negotiators to focus on mandatory repatriation,” Del Rosario said.
He also said that unlike the United States embassy in Damascus, the Philippine mission would remain open “as long as we have OFWs there that need help.”
“We have no plans of closing…Our embassy will continue to operate as mandated by President Aquino,” he added.
Majority of the remaining 9,000 OFWs in Syria have ignored the government’s free repatriation offer, prompting the DFA to intensify its efforts to reach out to them and convince them to leave the country.
No Filipinos were killed or injured in the deadly crackdown on protests by Syrian security forces, said the embassy.
More than 5,500 people have died in the 11-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to the United Nations.
