As of Feb. 28, 3:07am – from [email protected]
30 Filipinos and 55 Vietnamese have been evacuated by their company employer via a chartered plane. They will be flown back to Manila via Malta.
As of March 1, 7:24am – 109 OFWs have been waiting more than a week and remain in limbo near the border of Tunisia and Libya at Ghadames site. Ghadames site is 350 kilometers away from the nearest border at Wazzin and approximately 650 kilometers away from the Ras El Jdir where the Department of Foreign Affairs is supposedly situated. They asked to be fetched up by Philippine officials but the DFA refuses to meet with them.
As of March 1, 10:34am – 150 OFWs from Daewoo: Misurata Combine Cycle Project are still trapped in Misurata, Libya. Their employer promised to evacuate them last week but they are still waiting as of this posting. Their contact person there is Deo Catanghal Espinola, +218918241097
Filipino priest in Libya suggests alternative evacuation site
Fr. Allan Arcebuche of the San Francisco Catholic Church-Caritas in Tripoli, Libya who has been spearheading community efforts for the safety and evacuation of OFWs in Libya has suggested an alternative evacuation site that is relatively peaceful and more accessible.
Arcebuche proposed that OFWs be evacuated also to a site in Sirte City where there is an airport and a seaport. He said that the site is more accessible to OFWs from Jalo, Jufrah, Zellah Sebha and is also nearer Misurata, Sletin and Al Khoms than Tripoli and Benghazi.
He said that this proposed alternative has better chances of bringing in more OFWs from cities and towns where they are mostly located.
According to Gina Esguerra, Migrante International secretary-general, Arcebuche tried to forward said proposal to Office of the Undersecretary for Overseas Workers Affairs (OUMWA)-DFA Exec. Dir. Ricardo Endaya but he was met with hostility.
Gov’t asked to bare plans for returned OFWs
In light of thousands of OFWs expected to come back to the Philippines over the next few days, Esguerra also asked what the Aquino administration has in store for returned OFWs.
“Hindi sasapat ang P10,000 na reintegration training package na ipinagmamalaki ng DFA at OWWA. Ang kailangan ng ating mga kababayan ay trabahong nakabubuhay at may katiyakan. ”
On March 3, returned OFWs from Libya, Jeddah, Saudi, Madagascar and Taiwan will troop to Mendiola Bridge to demand job generation and the junking of the Aquino administration’s labor export policy. ###
