Philippines offers to fly all citizens out of Syria

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines on Thursday offered to fly its 5,000 citizens in Syria home for free as it again urged them to leave immediately to escape escalating violence, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the government would help all Filipinos arrange passage out of the Middle East country, which has been torn by deadly protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“In view of the escalating violence in Syria, the Department of Foreign Affairs will be raising alert level 4 for the entire country of Syria effective today,” he said in a statement.

That alert status meant all Filipinos would be repatriated at Philippine government expense, the ministry said.

About nine million Filipinos work around the world, earning more money in a wide range of skilled and unskilled jobs abroad than they could in their impoverished homeland.

Last week, the Philippine embassy in Damascus sent home 51 of an estimated 5,000 Filipinos in Syria, the ministry said.

Since as early as April, Manila has been urging its nationals in the country — most of them domestic helpers — to leave due to the worsening political violence. While some heeded the warning, others have insisted on staying on.

Earlier this year most of the roughly 30,000 Filipinos working in Libya fled that country after unrest broke out.

On Tuesday, Manila said it would allow those former workers to return to the country, although it is maintaining a ban on new workers going there.