DFA: Repatriation efforts in Libya hampered by clashes

Government efforts to repatriate Filipinos in Libya are being hampered by continuous fighting there as rebels continue their siege to topple the decades-old government of Muammar Gaddafi. “Yesterday (Saturday), the team was unable to pick up some of the overseas Filipino workers... because of the heavy fighting en route to their destination," said Raul Hernandez, spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). A DFA team led by Undersecretary Rafael Seguis has been deployed to the troubled North African nation to pick up Filipinos who signed for repatriation. There are close to 2,000 Filipinos, mostly nurses, who have remained in Libya and had refused to join the close to 10,000 Filipino workers who returned to the Philippines early this year. Last week, 91 had expressed their intention to join a Philippine government-organized repatriation, but of this figure, only 35 were able to join the first batch of foreign evacuees out of Tripoli last week. Hernandez said the government will continue to repatriate those who wish to return home. “We are on alert level 4 which calls for mandatory evacuation and as long as Filipinos there would want to be repatriated we will move them out of there," he said. - KBK, GMA News