40 OFWs finally back home after week of nonstop traveling

MANILA, Philippines—Forty Filipinos returned from Libya Thursday, bone-tired after almost a week of nonstop travels that took them from an oil field in the Sahara desert to a naval ship in the Mediterranean, two ports in Italy, another in Qatar, and finally to Manila.

At the end of the five-day adventure, Oscar Garcia, 56, said he was just glad to be home and was looking forward to returning to his family in Lingayen, Pangasinan province.

Carlito Estipular, 40, said his homecoming in Baguio City would be the first time he would see his new-born son after several months abroad.

The group of workers employed by the Italian construction firm Bonatti arrived aboard Qatar Airways Flight 648 just before 9 a.m. at Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Their group was the first of five more batches of Filipinos that returned home from Libya on Thursday, mostly under repatriation arrangements made by their multinational companies.

The Manila International Airport Authority said 51 had arrived on three flights as of early Thursday afternoon, and two more flights carrying 71 Filipinos were to arrive later in the day. Since Saturday, some 1,625 Filipinos have returned from Libya.

Garcia recalled how his group spent days cooped up in their rooms as armed militias, wearing bonnets to hide their faces, stormed their headquarters in Nafoora, an oil field in the Sahara, and took their valuables, such as cellular phones and laptop computers, as well as food provisions.

After a few days, he said their employer finally called in the Italian military to spirit all of its 300 workers, including the Filipinos, out of the desert on board a fleet of buses and nine vans.

“Our guards were all decked out in full battle gear … Fortunately, we did not have any hostile encounters on our way out,” Estipular said.

The workers were taken to the Sirte port where they boarded a naval ship that took them to Catania, Italy.

Philippine Embassy officials were waiting for them upon their arrival and stamped their travel documents, even though they only carried photocopies of their passports.

From Catania, the Filipinos took a flight to Rome, and another to Doha, Qatar, and from there flew to Manila.

“We’ve been traveling for five days nonstop,” Estipular said, sounding weary.