36 OFWs fleeing Syria come home on government tab

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario

Another 20 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) arrived in the Philippines from strife-wracked Syria on Sunday courtesy of the government’s free repatriation program, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The OFWs—accompanied by Charge d’Affaires Olivia Palala of the Philippine Embassy in Damascus—arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 5:12 p.m. on Emirates EK 332.

At Terminal 1, the repatriates were welcomed by staff of the DFA and the labor department-attached Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

On Sunday night, another 16 OFWs were scheduled to arrive from Syria on another Emirates flight.

The two batches of OFWs brings to 1,009 the number of Philippine nationals repatriated from the strife-torn Middle East country, according to the DFA.

“The OFWs’ airfare was shouldered entirely by the government,” according to Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesperson.

Hernandez said that “at least nine of the OFWs came from the Syrian protest hubs of Homs, Hama and Idli, while nine others, all overstaying aliens, were released from Kaffarseuseh prison in Damascus.”

Last week, 21 OFWs from Syria were flown home by the foreign office.

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

Hernandez said the foreign office was set to evacuate 160 more OFWs based in the conflict areas, where the “violence has become very alarming.”

The embassy has so far received nearly 280 repatriation applicants from the four conflict areas, he noted.

Del Rosario earlier said that based on new developments in the protest hubs, the DFA “may need to go one step further and resort to a strategy of extraction.”

He said that “rather than reduce the operating teams to help our distressed nationals, we are expanding to do what is necessary.”

The DFA had “anticipated a probable escalation of violence which resulted in our bringing in an additional team of negotiators to focus on mandatory repatriation,” the secretary said.

He said that unlike the United States Embassy in Damascus, the Philippine mission would remain open “as long as we have OFWs there that need help.”

“We have no plans of closing… our embassy will continue to operate as mandated by President Aquino,” he added.

So far, no Filipino has been killed or wounded in the deadly crackdown on protests by Syrian security forces, said the embassy.

More than 5,500 people have died in the 11-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to the United Nations.