More Filipinos come home from Syria

Syrians display a large national flag and chant slogans in support of President Basher Assad in front of the Syrian embassy, as others lined up to vote in expatriate voting ahead of the June 3, 2014 presidential vote, in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, May 28, 2014. AP

MANILA, Philippines—More Filipino workers arrived from Syria on Thursday to escape the civil war in that country.

The Filipinos, numbering 25, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on an Emirates Airlines flight that touched down at 4 p.m.

They were assisted by personnel from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Bureau of Immigration and the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

According to the DFA, their arrival brought to 5,361 the total number of Filipinos repatriated so far from Syria. Of the number, 2,332 transited through Lebanon with the assistance of the Philippine Embassy in Beirut.

The embassy in Syria reminded Filipinos in that country to avail themselves of the Philippine government’s mandatory repatriation program and to inform other Filipinos, particularly those in the Damascus area, about it.

The airline tickets of this batch of repatriates were provided by the International Organization for Migration in Damascus.—Jerome Aning