Eight more Filipinos to return home from Libya — DFA

MANILA, Philippines — Eight more Filipinos in Libya are expected to arrive in the Philippines after opting to be repatriated from the strife-torn country, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.

Chargé d’Affaires Elmer Cato said the group of Filipinos was evacuated from Tripoli to Tunis before heading to the airport where they will board their plane back to the Philippines.

“They will be boarding their flight to Manila in a few hours,” Cato said in a tweet.

Our eight kababayan who were evacuated by @PhinLibya from Tripoli yesterday are now in Tunis and are being assisted by colleagues from @DFAPHL. They will be boarding their flight to Manila in a few hours. @teddyboylocsin pic.twitter.com/SnNZC6CVvY

— Elmer G Cato (@elmer_cato) April 25, 2019

DFA on Wednesday said 11 Filipinos have been repatriated back to the Philippines since the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) raised the alert level from II to III in Tripoli and several districts in Libya in the wake of the continuing violence near the country’s capital.

Two Filipinos have also sustained injuries in the North African country.

On Tuesday, a Filipino worker was wounded “when a mortar round fell in their compound near the Tripoli International Airport and exploded.”

Another Filipino was also injured last week after mortar rounds struck a hospital in Qasr bin Ghashir, Tripoli.

“So before the fighting intensifies further and before it gets closer to where many of our kababayan are in Tripoli, we plead to them and to their families in the Philippines to please seriously consider our offer to bring them home while we still can,” Cato said in a separate statement.

Assistance once in the Philippines

The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) on Wednesday said the government will also provide assistance to Filipinos in Libya who will opt to be repatriated.

Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III said the labor department will help the repatriated Filipinos seek for job opportunities in the Philippines and abroad.

“We will help them in getting alternative employment opportunities, especially that most OFWs coming from Libya are nurses and medical workers and we have a market for them in Germany, and in Israel where they need a lot of caregivers and health workers,” Bello said in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net.

Cash assistance worth P20,000 on top of the entrepreneurial assistance, if they decide to start a business here, will also be provided. /je