DFA: 165 OFWs from Libya to return home

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MANILA — Some 165 Filipinos are set to return home to the Philippines in batches this week to escape the ongoing armed hostilities in Libya, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.

More Filipinos, it added, are expected to sign up for mandatory repatriation after Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario called on them to return home during his visit last week to Tunisia, the country where the departing workers take their onward flight to Manila.

The first group of 39 is arriving Monday at 3:10 p.

m. on board flight QR926 in NAIA Terminal 1, DFA spokesman Charles Jose said, while another five returns home the following day at 12:10 p.m. via flight PR311 in Terminal 2.

These arrivals will bring the total number of Filipino repatriates from Libya to 4,414 since Manila ordered the mass evacuation of its workers in May 2014 due to the civil war in the North African state.

Embassy representatives in Tripoli and Tunisia, Jose said, provided for the Filipinos’ accommodations and basic necessities and extended consular and airport assistance before they left for Manila on March 22.

The embassy team, he added, is currently finalizing the flight details of the other batches of Filipino repatriates.Around 4,000 Filipinos still remain in Libya despite repeated calls from the embassy to leave “before it becomes more difficult to repatriate them due to the continued deterioration of the security in the country.

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“The DFA also appeals to the next-of-kin of the remaining Filipinos in Libya to encourage them to return home to the Philippines,” Jose said.