Foreign Affairs department repatriates 55 OFWs from Syria
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
SOME 55 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will arrive in the country from tension-gripped Syria in continuation of the repatriation program activated there, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Tuesday.
In a text message, Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez confirmed that the 55 Filipino workers will arrive in Manila in four batches. The cost of the repatriation was shouldered by the Philippine government.
The first batch, comprising of 10 OFWs, arrived Tuesday via EK332 at 4:20 p.m.
The second batch, composed of seven OFWs, will arrive Wednesday via the same flight and time of arrival.
On December 1 and 3, 24 and 14 OFWs, respectively, will arrive via QR644 at 10:45 p.m.
The repatriation of the Filipinos is in response to the raising of alert level 3 in Syria on August 16 because of possible volatile security situation there.
"It will be recalled that a 10-member Rapid Reaction Team was sent to Syria in September as augmentation personnel to our embassy in its efforts to repatriate Filipinos in the country," Hernandez said.
"At DFA, we also organized the Task Group on Voluntary Repatriation-Syria. The embassy is coordinating with IOM-Damascus [International Organization for Migration] and with airlines for its ongoing efforts to repatriate more OFWs from Syria," he added.
Alert level three was raised in Syria following a series of violent demonstrations that toppled decades-old regime in neighboring countries of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. (CVB/Sunnex)
