With protesters taking to the streets for days and the surprised resignation of Lebanon’s government following a deadly explosion in Beirut last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs has intensified its operations to bring home the Filipinos in the country the soonest.
“We are not leaving anyone behind,” Migrant Workers Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Y. Arriola declared on Tuesday.
Arriola said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and its embassy in Beirut are taking all the necessary actions to guarantee the safety of overseas Filipinos who are still in Lebanon.
“More steps will be implemented in the coming days to see this through,” she said.
The first of the DFA chartered-flights from Beirut is expected to land in Manila on August 17 with some 400 overseas Filipinos expected to join the flight.
“Qatar Air will be the first in a number of repatriation flights that the DFA will mount to bring home our kababayans who want to come home. These flights shall be free and at no cost to our overseas Filipinos from Lebanon,” Arriola said.
About 31,000 Filipinos remain in Lebanon.
Beirut was rocked last week by a massive explosion that has claimed at least 163 lives and injured 6,000 others. (PNA)