MANILA – A total of 151 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in war-torn Lebanon are set to return to the country in the coming weeks according to the Department of Migrant Workers on Monday.
“Aside from the 151 braced to come home, we are processing around 235, still within the offices of the Lebanese immigration authorities. And of course, as I said, the situation is fluid, meaning we are continually accepting and helping those who wish to be repatriated,” Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said in a press briefing at its main office in Mandaluyong City.
He said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directives to them are clear, and that is to help and ensure the safety of OFWs in at least four affected areas — Israel, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza, and to bring them home safe.
Cacdac said the group will be divided by batch and will be brought home via commercial flights from October 11 to October 28.
Currently, he said around 2,000 OFWs in Northern Israel have been evacuated by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and they are now on safer grounds.
“The border between Lebanon and Israel, Northern Israel and the southern tip of Lebanon, and those who are in the southern cities, many of them have moved up north to central Beirut. We have three shelters with around 107 Filipinos in those shelters right now. Three separate shelters all around Beirut, and we will not disclose the nature of the facility nor their location for security reasons,” he said.
Cacdac said most of those who are currently in the shelter are just waiting to be repatriated.
He, however, said there are also several Filipinas married to Lebanese nationals with their families, including children, in the shelters.
“And the intent is not for them to be repatriated but just looking for safer ground,” he added.
Cacdac said there is an increasing interest on the part of OFWs to return to the country especially with the heightened tension and increased bombing in the area, which is still under Alert Level 3 or voluntary repatriation.
The DMW, together with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has so far repatriated around 430 out of Lebanon since October last year.
Of the 430, he said around 28 are dependents.
In the West Bank, Cacdac said there are around 21 OFWs who are all safe and accounted for.
Meanwhile, he said that despite the situation, the DMW’s Migrant Workers Offices in the conflict areas remain open to assist OFWS. (PNA)