3 abducted PH nurses safe

MANILA, Philippines—Three Filipino nurses who were reported abducted on the night of July 9 are now safe and are resting at company-provided accommodations in Sebha, southwestern part of Libya, according to the Filipino migrants rights group Migrante.

The three, one female and two male nurses, were victims of an apparent robbery attempt by a local taxi driver but were able to escape and call the Libyan police.

They were shaken but unharmed, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported.

According to the Libya Herald online, the “quick thinking of one Filipino nurse foiled an abduction attempt on three expatriate hospital workers in Sebha.”

The report by Houda Mzioudet said: “A taxi, supposed to be taking the nurses home after a pre-Ramadan evening shopping trip, instead drove the three Filipinos, two men and one woman, to the outskirts of Sebha.”

“It was an attempted abduction,” the Libya Herald quoted Filipino Consul General in Tripoli, Renato N. Duenes, as saying.

“One of the nurses challenged the driver, threw a stone at him and was able to escape,” Duenes said, “and then the other two were also able to get away.”

The report also said “an eyewitness, recognizing the nurses as staff from the Sebha General Hospital, called the clinic. A colleague alerted the police but, by the time they arrived, the nurses had already escaped and were hiding, and the taxi had driven away from the scene.”

The nurses, all in their midtwenties, said they had been working in Libya for the past nine months.

John Leonard Monterona of the group Migrante said he had heard from colleagues of the nurses that “robbery was the motive.”

Monterona said he had also heard reports that the nurses have requested transfer to Tripoli because of the incident.

“Philippine Embassy and labor officials in Libya should immediately talk to the employer of the three OFWs and their colleagues to arrange their transfer from their Sebha job site to Tripoli, the latter is relatively peaceful,” Monterona said. Tina G. Santos