Pinoys in Iraq advised to prepare in case of mandatory evacuation

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday night released a travel advisory calling on Filipinos to cancel travel to Iraq due to heightened tensions in the region following the assassination by the US of top Iranian commander Qassim Suleimani in capital Baghdad.

In its travel notice, the DFA urged Filipinos "to cancel, until further notice, any travel to Iraq in view of the current situation in the country."

Filipinos in Iraq are also "strongly advised to coordinate closely with the Philippine Embassy and their employers in the event mandatory evacuation will be necessary."

The embassy, it said, may be contacted at (+964) 781-606-6822; (+964) 751-616-7838; and (+964) 751-876-4665 or via email: baghdad.pe@dfa.gov.ph; and through its Facebook page: Philippine Embassy in Iraq.

Iran vowed to retaliate against the US for killing Suleimani, in an attack said to be authorized by President Donald Trump.

Suleimani, who led the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and accused by the Pentagon of "actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region," was killed by an American drone at Baghdad airport early Friday.

In the aftermath of the attack, Washington advised all its citizens in Iraq to leave.

Currently, the Philippines enforces crisis alert level 3 or voluntary repatriation for all areas in Iraq except for the Iraqi Kurdistan region which remains under Alert Level 1 or precautionary phase.

There is also an existing deployment ban of new workers and household workers to Iraq.

The DFA did not give an exact figure of Filipino workers in Iraq, but in 2017 the Philippine Embassy in Baghdad said there are around 1,500 workers in the Middle East state, mostly working in the Kurdistan region. —NB, GMA News