200 Pinoys in Syria await repatriation

‘We Want To Go Home’

MANILA, Philippines — As the civil war in Syria intensifies, more than 200 Filipino workers wait at the Philippine embassy in Damascus to be flown home.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Finance and Administration Rafael Seguis said Monday the Filipinos reached the embassy with the help of the Rapid Response Team put together by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Seguis said the team, led by Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA) Executive Director Eric Andaya, will remain in Damascus until all Filipinos who want to leave Syria are accounted for.

He said around 2,200 Filipinos have been repatriated since the civil war in Syria began 17 months ago.

Earlier, DFA Spokesman Raul Hernandez said that of the estimated 7,000 Filipino migrant workers who remain in Syria despite the escalating fighting, only around 1,300 have signified their intention to be repatriated.

Hernandez said most of the Filipinos in Syria are undocumented household service workers, employed in rich neighborhoods in Aleppo and Damascus.

Diplomatic attempts to end the Syrian conflict are “nearly impossible” and not enough is being done to end the fighting, the new UN and Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said in a BBC interview broadcast on Monday.

“I know how difficult it is – how nearly impossible. I can’t say impossible – nearly impossible,” Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat, told the BBC. “And we are not doing much. That in itself is a terrible weight.”

Brahimi replaced Kofi Annan as the United Nations and Arab League joint special representative on Syria at the end of August. Annan stepped down after blaming “finger-pointing and name-calling” at the UN Security Council for hampering efforts to find a breakthrough in the conflict.

Around 20,000 people have been killed during the uprising against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

Brahimi said he was “scared of the weight of responsibility” on his shoulders and was aware that not enough is being done to end the violence through diplomacy.

“People are already saying ‘People are dying and what are you doing?’ And we are not doing much. That in itself is a terrible weight,” he told the BBC in an interview conducted in English.

Brahimi said he felt like he was “standing in front of a brick wall”, looking for cracks that may yield a solution.

“I’m coming into this job with my eyes open, and (with) no illusions,” he said. –Manila Bulletin (Additional report from Reuters)