Release of 17 Filipinos held by Houthi a question of when

The 17 Filipinos being held by Houthi militants will be released but there is still no information on when they will be freed, the Department of Foreign Affairs has said.

According to a 24 Oras report on Wednesday, the DFA has already sent a team to Yemen to provide assistance to the seafarers and ongoing negotiations.

“Ang sinasabi lang sa amin ng contacts natin [is] for sure [that] they will be released, but it’s just a matter of how long. We can promise that they’re okay, because they’ve been able to contact their families,” said DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega.

“The Houthis are adamant [right] now that [it is] not about money. They just want the Israeli operations against Gaza to end,” added de Vega.

The Filipino seafarers were on board the Bahamas-flagged vehicle carrier Galaxy Leader, when it was captured by the Houthi in the Red Sea in November 19.

The Houthi, an Islamist group based in Yemen, had taken the Israeli-owned ship  in support of Hamas in its war against Israel in Gaza.

The International Bargaining Forum had declared the southern area of the Red Sea and the Bab El-Mandeb Strait as a “High Risk Area” following the Houthi’s missile attacks on another container ship bound for Saudi Arabia and an attempted drone attack on Israel.

The Department of Migrant Workers announced that seafarers may reject jobs that would require passage through said High Risk Areas.

“The idea is that we don’t want our seafarers to be forced to take that routes and instead they should be given other routes parang ganun, tingin ko ang sasabihin ng seafarers natin papayag sila kasi with higher pay pero mas importante yung buhay kasi aanuhin ang mas mataas na sweldo kung dinakip ka naman kung hinuli kayo,” said de Vega. —Jiselle Anne Casucian/RF, GMA Integrated News