Thousands of OFWs won’t leave Syria, DFA laments

MANILA, Philippines—Majority of the 17,000 overseas Filipino workers based in Syria, most of them undocumented domestic helpers, have ignored the government’s voluntary repatriation program, prompting the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to intensify its efforts to reach out to the OFWs and convince them to leave the troubled country.

This week, only 55 OFWs were scheduled to return to Manila “at government expense,” said Raul Hernandez, spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“Following the raising of Alert Level 3 in Syria on August 16 due to the security situation there, the Philippine Embassy in Damascus is repatriating 55 OFWs in four separate batches this week at government expense,” said Hernandez.

Under Alert Level 3, or voluntary repatriation, all Filipinos working and residing in Syria are enjoined to leave the country with the Philippine government providing for the repatriation costs.

Alert Level 4 calls for forced or mandatory evacuation of all Philippine nationals from a troubled host country.

During the past six months, fewer than 300 OFWs have availed themselves of the voluntary repatriation program.

Earlier, Hernandez pointed out that although the unrest had been going on in Syria for months, only a few OFWs had come forward to request that they be sent home by their government.

“No one wants to be repatriated back to the Philippines. Maybe, they still feel safe there,” he told DFA reporters.

In September, he noted, the foreign office sent a 10-member Rapid Reaction Team to Syria “as augmentation personnel to our embassy in its efforts to repatriate Filipinos in that country.”

“We also organized the DFA Task Group on Voluntary Repatriation. The embassy is coordinating with the International Organization for Migration office in Damascus and with the airline companies for the government’s ongoing efforts to repatriate more OFWs from Syria,” Hernandez added.

As early as last August, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario had ordered the embassy to “intensify efforts to reach out to Filipinos and convince them that now is the time to consider leaving Syria.”

President Aquino told Palace reporters that because most of the Filipinos in Syria were maids, “the assumption is that they don’t possess the ability as readily as professionals to take care of themselves.”

The Pasay City-based Blas Ople Policy Center, said earlier in a statement, “Years of unabated human trafficking of Filipino women to Syria has rendered OFWs in conflict-ridden areas more difficult to reach and rescue.”

“The Philippine embassy would have to seek the help of local labor suppliers to find out who are employing our workers and where they can be found,” it added.

Early this week, United Nations investigators said Syrian security forces had committed crimes against humanity, including the killing and torture of children.

Investigators from the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria held state officials responsible for the murder, rape and torture in their crackdown on protesters since March.

Damascus, where the family of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has ruled for 41 years, claimed regional powers helped incite the violence wracking the country. –Jerry E. Esplanada, Philippine Daily Inquirer