35 OFWs leave Tripoli on evacuation ship

MANILA, Philippines—Thirty-five overseas Filipino workers on Friday evacuated from Tripoli by boarding a ferry chartered by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Citing a report of the Philippine embassy in the Libyan capital, DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said the OFWs “boarded the MV Tasuko which sailed at 3 a.m. Friday (Manila time) from the port of Tripoli to Benghazi (not Alexandria in Egypt as reported earlier by the foreign office).”

“From Benghazi, where they will disembark, the OFWs will travel by land to the Egyptian border town of Al Salom … A team from the Philippine Embassy in Cairo is already in place at the border and will receive and assist in the repatriation of the Filipinos,” said Hernandez.

He said “some OFWs from various workplaces could not be brought to the port because of heavy fighting in the streets of Tripoli.”

According to Hernandez, “the embassy team will try to fetch them (on Saturday) for the second boat trip” that is being arranged by the Geneva-based IOM.

Meanwhile, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has dispatched one of its welfare officers based in Saudi Arabia to Cairo to assist in the repatriation of OFWs from Libya.

“From Al Khobar, our welfare officer is flying to Cairo to help (DFA and Department of Labor and Employment personnel) in the OFW repatriation process,” OWWA chief Carmelita Dimzon told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The other day, the DFA said the National Transitional Council in Libya had arranged “safe passage” for 91 Filipino evacuees to the Tripoli ferry terminal.

The IOM-chartered ferry, which also carried an undisclosed number of foreign migrant workers, was scheduled to leave the Libyan capital at 3 p.m. Thursday (Manila time).

Hernandez said the NTC “helped our overseas Filipino workers secure exit passes, as well as provide them with security escorts” on their way to the Tripoli port.

The IOM “will shoulder the OFWs’ travel costs from Libya to Egypt. For its part, the Philippine government will take care of the OFWs’ plane fares from Cairo to Manila,” he added.

“It’s possible there will be a second batch of evacuees. It all depends on how many other OFWs would avail of the government’s repatriation program,” Hernandez said

He reiterated the safety of the OFWs remains the priority of the government, pointing out that Manila had ordered the mandatory evacuation of Filipinos in Libya.

According to Hernandez, the 1,700-plus Filipinos who opted to remain in Libya “have been advised by the embassy to stay put in their homes and workplaces until further notice.”

He quoted DFA Undersecretary Rafael Seguis as saying that “clashes are ongoing in Tripoli” and that “from the embassy, machine gun fires and explosions can still be heard.”

Seguis, who is on a mission to help address the needs of Filipinos in Libya, also told the home office “it’s not totally safe” to venture out of the embassy.

The diplomat warned Filipinos still in Libya that it was still “too dangerous to go out.”

Hernandez thanked the Libyan people anew for “keeping Filipinos and their families in Libya safe and for the hospitality extended to them throughout the conflict.”

The foreign office had expressed support for the NTC following the defection of the Libyan Embassy in Makati City to rebels in control of much of the troubled north African country.

In a statement, the DFA said that the Philippines “welcomes the imminent resolution of the conflict in Libya.”

“The Philippines supports a peaceful transition in Libya in order for normalcy to return to this country, and looks forward to working with the Libyan people in pursuing peace and stability,” it added.

More than 26,000 OFWs were in Libya when anti-government protests erupted six months ago. Around 13,000 of them have been repatriated, but Philippine officials could not account for the rest, other than the several thousand who had requested assistance to leave as violence escalated last week.

Meanwhile, like the 10,000 Filipinos who had earlier fled Libya, the latest batch of evacuees “will also get P10,000 each in cash aid from OWWA.”

In a phone interview, Dimzon assured that “temporary relief funds are available for OFW evacuees from Libya.”

“Aside from temporary relief or cash assistance, they can also avail of livelihood loans intended for OWWA members,” said Dimzon.

The agency had earlier released about P100 million to some 10,000 OFWs who fled Libya early this year.