Iraqi Shiite volunteers who have joined government forces to fight Sunni jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) take part in a training session near the southern port city of Basra on August 7, 2014. A UN statement said some reports put the number of people forced to flee by the IS takeover at 200,000. AFP PHOTO/HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI
MANILA, Philippines – Only 13 of the 900 Filipino workers in Iraq have been repatriated despite the ongoing unrest and no OFWs have evacuated since, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Friday, as US President Barack Obama authorized “targeted air strikes” against the strife-torn country.
“Since we raised Alert Level 4 (mandatory repatriation) last June 18, we were able to repatriate 13 OFWs mostly from the Baghdad area,” DFA spokesman Charles Jose said in a press conference.
“No OFWs from the Iraq Autonomous region of Kurdistan have evacuated,” he said.
There are more than 700 OFWs in Kurdistan in the northern portion of the country while there are around 150 Filipinos in the capital city of Baghdad.
Obama has authorized targeted air strikes against the armed members of the ISIS that have been making advances towards Kurdistan and threatening the Yazidi ethnic group that were trapped on a mountain.
“We can act, carefully and responsibly, to prevent a potential act of genocide,” Obama said.
“I therefore authorized targeted air strikes if necessary to help forces in Iraq as they fight to break the siege and protect the civilians trapped there,” Obama said.
Jose however said that Filipinos in Kurdistan were not among the trapped people and that most conflicts were isolated.
“Given the statements by the US, our primary concern is the safety of our OFWs. The Filipinos are not trapped and ISIS has not taken control yet of Kurdistan but are advancing,” Jose said.
“Our Embassy in Baghdad reports that most conflicts are isolated in provinces away from Filipino communities. They recommend we maintain alert level 2 in Kurdistan and alert level 4 in Iraq,” he said.
A large portion of Iraq and Syria has fallen to the extremist group ISIS, which now calls itself Islamic State. The group has declared the establishment of a Caliphate over the territory it controls.