37 OFW arriving Tuesday from Syria, says DFA

MANILA, Philippines—Thirty-seven Filipino workers are scheduled to arrive in Manila from Syria later Tuesday, bringing to 913 the number of Filipino workers repatriated by the government from that strife-torn country, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

In a press statement, the DFA said  the workers, who had availed themselves of the government’s offer to repatriate them, were to arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Terminal 1 at 4:15 p.m. aboard an Etihad Airways flight 424.

“All of the repatriates are women…. Six of them were from Homs, one from Hama and another one was from Daraa,” said the DFA Public Information Service Unit.

Homs, Hama and Daraa are among the opposition strongholds in Syria, the DFA noted.

Citing a report from the Philippine embassy in Damascus, the DFA said “at least 20 of the returning OFWs were overstaying workers. They were kept at the Kaffarseuseh detention facility while their papers were being processed.”

“The other 17 were temporarily sheltered at the embassy’s halfway quarters while negotiations with their Syrian employers and the authorities were conducted prior to the issuance of the OFWs’ exit visas,” it said.

Last Sunday, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario deployed a “rapid response team,” composed of personnel from the Philippine National Police, Department of Labor and Employment and the DFA, to “help out in the extraction and repatriation of OFWs in Syria’s conflict areas.”

Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesperson, said the foreign office was set to evacuate 164 based in the conflict areas, where “violence has become very alarming.”

Hernandez said they had “a total of 278 repatriation applicants from the four conflict areas and 222 of these were from Homs,” a city in central Syria.