DFA to repatriate Pinoy household workers of Gaddafi relative

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is working on the repatriation of four Filipino household workers of a nephew of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said on Tuesday the relatives of the four Filipinos sought the department's help over the weekend. After availing of the DFA's free call services to Libya, the relatives learned that the workers were “safe and in the house of their employer in Tripoli." The workers "were not allowed to go out mainly due to the volatile situation in their area," Malaya said. "The DFA instructed the Philippine embassy to make arrangements for their repatriation," he added. Violent protests rocked Libya in the last two weeks as angry demonstrators demanded that Gaddafi step down from his post. At least 200 people were reportedly killed during the protests. The Philippine government placed the situation in Libya on alert 4, which calls for mass evacuation of all Filipinos in that country. As of posting time, over 2,300 Filipinos have been evacuated out of Libya and many more are expected in the coming days, the DFA said. Of this figure, some 473 are already in Manila, the DFA added. On Tuesday, the Philippine Embassy in Greece chartered a ship to repatriate Filipinos from Benghazi in Northern Libya. The vessel, the Ionian Queen, will transport around 1,500 Filipinos to the Greek island of Crete, where a DFA crisis team is stationed. DFA crisis teams are likewise arranging chartered flights via Qatar Ariways, Tunisia Air and Philippine Airlines to fly the distressed Filipinos to Manila. – VVP, GMA News