First batch of Iraq OFWs repatriated

Chargé d’Affaires Elmer G. Cato of the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad bids farewell to three Filipinos who were repatriated from Iraq on July 16. The three are among several Filipinos who requested the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs in going home after their families in the Philippines expressed concern for their security and safety following a series of car bomb explosions in Baghdad. PH EMBASSY PHOTO/BAGHDAD

BAGHDAD—The Philippine Embassy has repatriated the first batch of overseas Filipino workers who asked to be brought home after their families expressed fears for their safety due to the security situation in Iraq.

The Embassy said the first three of 19 Filipino employees of an upscale Baghdad restaurant were repatriated on July 16 and were scheduled to arrive in Manila on July 18. The rest will be repatriated before the end of the month.

Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Elmer G. Cato said several other Filipinos working in other establishments in the Iraqi capital have also reached out to request the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs in their repatriation.

Cato said the workers, who are among the estimated 1,500 Filipinos in Iraq, had asked to be covered by the mandatory repatriation program being offered by the Philippine Government after they nearly became casualties in two suicide car bomb explosions in Baghdad two months ago.

“A number of our kababayans here in Baghdad approached the Embassy and said they want to go home because they no longer want to unnecessarily worry their families in the Philippines,” Cato said.

Most of those who asked to be repatriated are waiters of a prominent restaurant who were billeted at a hotel in Baghdad’s downtown Karrada District, where a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle on 5 May.

The vehicle exploded just five minutes after most of the Filipinos staying there and in an adjoining building have left for work. Several other Filipinos were inside the hotel when it was hit by the blast that killed four persons and wounded several others.

Later that month, another suicide bomb explosion hit two five-star hotels in Baghdad, including one that employed 21 Filipinos, killing six persons and wounding several more. A bomb that detonated near one of the two hotels a few weeks earlier also resulted in several casualties.

The attacks prompted the Embassy to reiterate its call for Filipinos in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq to seriously consider returning to the Philippines and offered to facilitate their repatriation. A total of 42 Filipinos have now been repatriated under this program.

Manila placed most of Iraq under Alert Level 4 (Mandatory Repatriation) after the Islamic State captured the city of Mosul last year. Except for the Kurdistan region in the north, which is under Alert Level 2, most of Iraq remains under Alert Level 4 due to the volatile security environment in the country.

Last month, the Embassy issued an advisory urging Filipinos in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq to exercise extreme caution and to limit their movements following a series of bombings and other violent incidents in the past weeks.

Filipinos working in Iraq are also being urged to register with the Embassy so that they could easily be contacted in case of emergency.

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