{"id":209353,"date":"2019-04-10T21:34:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T01:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=209353"},"modified":"2019-04-10T21:34:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T01:34:20","slug":"dole-braces-for-possible-repatriation-of-ofws-from-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/10\/dole-braces-for-possible-repatriation-of-ofws-from-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"DOLE braces for possible repatriation of OFWs from Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III at the recently concluded Employers Forum at the Clark Freeport Zone. (Photo<\/a>: DOLE Central Luzon\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is gearing up for a possible repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Libya.<\/p>\n

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said an augmentation team composed of six people (three support personnel and three welfare officers) is set to be deployed to the host country next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sending an augmentation team there. Just in case of a forced repatriation,\u201d he said in an interview on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

However, Bello said he is not privy on whether there will be a forced repatriation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not in the position to say that. It is the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) which is assessing the situation in coordination with our posts. Our Philippine Overseas Labor Office. (They are the ones who fully understand the situation),\u201d Bello added.<\/p>\n

The DOLE chief reported that so far, they have not received any request regarding voluntarily repatriation from the more than 2,600 Filipinos workers in Tripoli, majority of whom are skilled workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur estimate is about only 10 to 20 percent of OFWs there would want to go home. All the rest would want to stay. But if reaches (alert) level 4, then it will be forced repatriation. Level 3 it will still be voluntary repatriation,\u201d Bello explained.<\/p>\n

He added that there are no Filipinos in conflict-stricken areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are only worried about is that the situation might worsen. Of course, we have to prepare for any exigency,\u201d the DOLE Secretary said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People (CBCP-ECMI) urged Filipinos in Libya to heed to the call of the DFA.<\/p>\n

\u201cSituation is Libya is uncertain, volatile and unstable. Their stay is not secured, and their work is not stable. For the safety and security of our OFWs in Libya we at CBCP-ECMI, support and encourage them to heed the appeal of our DFA to return home,\u201d Bishop Ruperto Santos, head of the CBCP-ECMI, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe surely believe our government will assist them here. And we have Migrant Ministries in our Arch\/Dioceses to help them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the DFA urged Filipinos in the Libyan capital and nearby areas to consider getting themselves and their dependents repatriated after raising Crisis Alert Level 3 (Voluntary Repatriation Phase) in the area.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Presidential Council in Libya placed security forces on alert after units loyal to the rival Libyan National Army announced they have begun advancing towards Tripoli, triggering some limited clashes south of the capital that left one person dead.<\/p>\n

United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres initially expressed “deep concern” over the military movement and the risk of confrontation it poses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is gearing up for a possible repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":90126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ferdinand-patinio","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209354,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209353\/revisions\/209354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}