DFA starts evacuation of Filipinos from Libya

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday began evacuating Filipino workers from the Libyan capital of Tripoli after two weeks of armed hostilities.

In a statement, the DFA said the first batch consisted of seven Filipinos—three hospital workers and four students.

"They were evacuated by the Philippine embassy this morning to Tunisia where they will be repatriated to the Philippines," the DFA said.

Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Elmer Cato said 13 more Filipinos who requested assistance in getting repatriated are expected to be evacuated to Tunisia in the next few days.

The DFA said it shouldered the cost of repatriating the four students from a Islamic school in Tripoli while the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) paid for the airfare of the three employees of the Ali Omar Ashkar Hospital outside Tripoli.

Of the estimated 1,000 Filipinos in Tripoli, only 20 have expressed intention to leave even as the Philippine government raised crisis alert level 3, which calls for voluntary repatriation of workers due to worsening security condition in Libya.

Libya does not have a functioning government and is plagued by civil unrest and armed hostilities.

On Tuesday, a Filipino worker was injured in a rocket attack in Tripoli.

Rolando Torres narrowly survived the barrage of rockets that struck his home in Tripoli late Tuesday night.

Torres, who hails from Nueva Ecija and has been working in Tripoli since 2006, was wounded in the forehead.

"He now wants to go home," said Cato, who came to pick up the Filipino worker.

Despite repeated appeals from the Philippine government to leave, many of the Filipinos in Libya continued to hold on to their jobs despite the widespread violence, citing lack of economic opportunities back home.

The DFA said it will continue to enforce voluntary evacuation and even called on the relatives of those Filipinos who are in Libya to convince their loved ones to return to the Philippines as the violence and armed conflict showed no sign of easing. —KBK, GMA News