17 Filipino evacuees home from Sudan

FILE: SAFE AT LAST. Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo (right) welcomes the first batch of 17 government-assisted Filipino evacuees who arrived home from strife-torn Sudan on Saturday (April 29, 2023). They flew out of Athens, Greece and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday. (Photo: Department of Foreign Affairs/Website)

MANILA – The first batch of Filipino evacuees made possible by a government-led repatriation is home from Sudan, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced Saturday.

Seventeen repatriates flew out of Athens, Greece and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Eight of them are hotel workers who boarded a military evacuation flight after representations with the Greek government through the Philippine Embassy in Athens.

The Embassy received the group in Athens on the morning of Friday and arranged for their flight back to the Philippines through the DFA’s Assistance-to-Nationals Fund.

The remaining nine, including one infant, fled capital Khartoum via Port Sudan where they boarded a C130 plane of the Saudi Royal Air Force bound for Jeddah.

The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah received the group on Thursday and provided assistance by issuing travel documents to those who did not have their original passports.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) provided the repatriation tickets for eight workers while the Consulate arranged for the flight of the other evacuee, a student.

“The Philippine government is working round-the-clock to assist our kababayans (countrymen) who have left Sudan,” DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo said in a statement on Saturday.

The DFA said personnel from the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), OWWA, and the Department of National Defense have also been deployed to augment the evacuation efforts.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), meanwhile, will render assistance to the returning Filipinos.

Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez, DSWD spokesperson, said the Field Office-National Capital Region and the DSWD’s Program Management Bureau are the lead agencies the repatriates.

“If there is a requirement for temporary shelter we will bring them to the Mandaluyong office of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking,” Lopez said in a statement.

Manalo thanked the foreign governments which extended help to Filipinos streaming out of the strife-torn state.

As of posting time, 610 Filipinos have fled Khartoum, with 391 crossing to the Egyptian side of the border in buses chartered by the Philippine Embassy in Cairo and the Philippine Honorary Consulate in Sudan.

The Embassy is currently arranging for their temporary visas and repatriation flights to the Philippines, while DMW and OWWA are preparing for shelter and other welfare assistance during transit.

“The Embassy and our DMW teams will make sure they will all be treated well onboard buses and in Cairo,” DMW Secretary Susan Ople said.

Ople earlier flew to Cairo to lead the distribution of welfare assistance to evacuated OFWs from Sudan.