DFA: Many Filipinos won’t leave Libya for their jobs

MANILA, Philippines—Thousands of Filipinos have ignored the government’s last call to return home, preferring to stay in Libya rather than face a bleak future in the Philippines, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario reported Wednesday.

Del Rosario made a second trip in less than a month to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, overland from Tunisia on Tuesday, staying for several hours, meeting with Filipinos at the Philippine Embassy and telling them that the Aquino administration’s voluntary repatriation program from the insurrection-torn country was ending the following day.

Del Rosario learned from leaders of the Filipino community that “many preferred putting their lives at risk over the prospects of non-employment and economic hardship” in the Philippines, said Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Eduardo Malaya.

One of the Filipino leaders told Del Rosario “many want to go home, but they preferred to stay in Libya because there are no job opportunities in the Philippines,” Malaya said in a briefing on the DFA chief’s daylong trip to Tripoli.

Hopelessness

President Benigno Aquino III read to reporters during a visit to Cagayan de Oro City Wednesday a text message that Del Rosario had sent him about the Filipino workers’ reluctance to go home.

“A very large group of leaders was at the embassy to express thanks to the Aquino government for protecting them by encouraging repatriation. But placing their lives at risk was … preferred by many over the prospects of no employment and economic hopelessness,” the President quoted Del Rosario as saying in his text message.

Mr. Aquino said it was sad that Filipinos “see hope in a place where there is conflict rather than in our country which is peaceful.” He said he could not blame them if their priority was to sustain the needs of their families.

Only 31 Filipino workers joined Del Rosario for the trip back to the Tunisian border town of Djerba, according to Malaya.

At Djerba, Malaya said Del Rosario’s group joined 23 other Filipinos who were earlier relocated there by Philippine Ambassador to Libya Alejandrino Vicente.

Another 30 Filipinos, including 19 students, were expected to arrive in Djerba Wednesday, Malaya said.

In the past week, only three Filipinos from the rebel-controlled eastern city of Benghazi had so far arrived at As Sallum at the Egyptian border, Malaya said.

Lightning visit

He said a DFA team was in Tobruk, also in the east, to “search for Filipinos who may have found their way there from Benghazi.”

On Feb. 27, Del Rosario said he made a similar lightning visit to Tripoli to whisk out 400 Filipinos in a convoy of 40 cars to the Tunisian border, crossing to the other side in six hours amid gunfire along the way and a crush of tens of thousands of migrant workers scrambling to get out.

In an earlier report, the Philippine Embassy said Filipino workers who stayed in Libya were promised by their employers pay raises and other incentives.

Remittances

“The Filipino workers are actually more concerned about the difficulty in remitting money to their families in the Philippines than the air strikes in Libya. They asked the government how the government could help them in sending their remittances,” the Philippine Embassy said.

Del Rosario has “promised to arrive at a mechanism for sending remittances through the embassy,” the embassy said.

Del Rosario directed Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis to remain in Tripoli for a few days to “take care of the remittance issue and the last-minute repatriates.”

Del Rosario earlier visited Japan to look into the situation of Filipinos affected by a colossal earthquake, a devastating tsunami and threats from radiation from exploding nuclear plant reactors.

He then proceeded to Bahrain and Yemen during the weekend to review the situation of Filipino workers threatened by political tensions in the two Arab countries.

Communications cut

More than 9,000 Filipinos have fled Libya after a rebellion calling for an end to the four-decade rule of Moammar Gadhafi broke out in mid-February.

It was unclear how Del Rosario’s announcement of a deadline for the voluntary repatriation was relayed to the Filipinos scattered in Libya. Communications have been cut through much of Libya since the coalition air strikes began over the weekend.

Malaya insisted that “the bulk of our nationals have already exited Libya through the coordinated efforts of the DFA and the Department of Labor and Employment.”

But he said the embassy staff “will remain in Tripoli to take care of our country’s interests and ensure the safety of the Filipinos who chose to remain for personal reasons.”