Repatriation of stranded Filipino tourists in Jordan underway - DFA

More than 80 Filipino tourists who were left stranded in Jordan as a result of US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran are now being repatriated, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Saturday.

"As of March 7, 82 out of the 113 initially stranded individuals have safely departed from Queen Alia International Airport to several transit hubs, including Cairo, Dubai, Mumbai, and Riyadh, where passengers are boarding their respective connecting flights to Manila," the DFA said in a statement.

"At present, the Embassy continues to assist the remaining 31 Filipino tourists still in Amman."

Meanwhile, 81 overseas Filipino workers whose flights were disrupted due to the conflict arrived in the country earlier in the day.

Now entering its second week, the war was sparked by joint Israeli and US airstrikes last Saturday that killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and destroyed military, administrative, and security infrastructure.

The conflict has since widened to Lebanon, as well as Cyprus in the EU, Turkey, and Azerbaijan—and reached as far as waters off Sri Lanka, where US forces sank an Iranian warship with a torpedo. — with a report from Agence France-Presse/VBL, GMA Integrated News