Cimatu to fly to Middle East to handle OFW repatriation

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu on Wednesday said he will be flying to the Middle East on Thursday to provide the necessary requirements for the repatriation of Filipino workers in Iraq amid tensions in the region.

The security situation in the region has heightened after the United States' killing of top Iranian military general Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad's International Airport on January 3. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed retaliation.

On Wednesday morning, Iran fired rockets at Iraq's al Asad airbase, which hosts US forces.

"I was able to talk and contact our Philippine Ambassador to Iraq yesterday, and also our ambassador to Tehran, Iran about our situation in the area and also the Filipino workers there," Cimatu, the Special Envoy to the Middle East, said in a press conference.

"I was talking to them last night and there's some documented [Filipinos]. In fact, there are some already flying to get out. This will [be] the concern when I fly there tomorrow, how to bring them out," he added.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on Wednesday that the security alert level was raised to four over Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon on Wednesday, which requires mandatory repatriation.

Cimatu said they will be concentrating on Iraq for the time being.

"They already have a plan. The plan calls for if the airport in Baghdad is still open, then they will use that. However, if it is not open they have two options: by land going to Amman, Jordan, and the other one is going to the north, to Erbil. There is an airport there that can go either go to Dubai or Qatar for eventual flight to Manila," Cimatu said.

"I told them to prepare or to hire vehicles because I was told that they have only three vehicles that [is] bringing out hundred or thousands, so they might need some buses. I told them to hire now," he added.

Though Cimatu will fly to the Middle East first, he said that officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Department of Labor and Employment will follow.

Cimatu earlier recommended the immediate evacuation of Filipinos in Iraq. —JST, GMA News