Majority of Filipino workers in Syria have rejected the Philippine government’s offer to repatriate them to the Philippines for free amid the worsening political security situation in the troubled Middle East state, citing scant employment opportunities back home, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario admitted yesterday.
Del Rosario, who flew to Syria last weekend to personally check on the progress of evacuation efforts of the Philippine Embassy there, said many Filipinos have expressed their desire to remain even as the government declared the highest crisis alert in the country that calls for mandatory repatriation of all its nationals.
“Oddly enough, not a single one of them wants to be repatriated
and their reason is that there is not enough economic opportunities in the Philippines,” Del Rosario told a press briefing, adding that the government cannot force them to leave if they don’t want to.
There are an estimated 10,000 mostly undocumented Filipinos across the country working mainly as maids. They entered Syria as tourists and subsequently gained employment, earning about $150 a month.
The Philippines is a major labor-exporting nation with about 8.6 million skilled and unskilled workers scattered abroad, earning more than they could in the country where jobs are scarce and poverty is widespread.
Del Rosario said many Filipinos he met in Syria are not enthusiastic about coming back to the Philippines.
“I did not talk to anyone who wanted to be repatriated,” he said as he acknowledged that the government will not be able to move out the entire 10,000 from Syria.
“I think if we are able to get 20 percent of the 10,000 I think that’s a pretty good figure,” he said.
Del Rosario described the security situation in Syria as “worsening” and “uncertain,” noting that the violent crackdown on political demonstrators is likely to continue, but his warnings were ignored by Filipinos, who refuse to join government-organized evacuation.
Most Filipinos, he explained, do not feel threatened as they were guaranteed security by their “good” employers.
“I think the people who are signing up for repatriation are those who are not being treated well by their employers. That’s my sense of it,” he said.
But if those who chose to stay change their minds, Del Rosario assured that the government will have the financial resources to evacuate them.
To evacuate one Filipino would cost the government $4,000, which comprises airfare, refund of deployment cost to the Syrian employer and immigration penalties for those who have overstayed in the country.
Despite questions on the government’s ability to shoulder the high cost of mass evacuation, Del Rosario said there is enough funding to cover operation.
Since the beginning of unrests in March this year, 490 Filipinos have returned to the Philippines and the government expects this figure to double in the succeeding weeks after the Syrian government approved Manila’s request to post advertisements in major Syrian newspapers of the ongoing repatriation operation.
UN humanitarian officials estimate that at least 5,000 Syrians have been killed in the nine months since a popular uprising erupted against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, most of them killed by security forces.
However some Filipinos have accepted a government offer to fly them home with about one thousand likely to return over the next several weeks, del Rosario said.
The Philippines is a major labor-exporting country, with about 10 percent of its 94 million population working abroad, many as maids, seamen, construction workers and laborers due to lack of well-paying jobs at home. AFP, Michaela P. del Callar, Daily Tribune
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