Philippine Pleads with Workers in Libya to Return as Britain Evacuates Nationals
The Philippines on Sunday appealed to thousands of its nationals to flee Libya, warning that the situation there could worsen after only a few hundred heeded calls to return home.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was preparing a ship to ferry Filipino workers from Libyan cities to Malta so they can be flown home after fighting closed down the airport in Tripoli.
President Benigno Aquino's spokesman Herminio Coloma told reporters "we are appealing to them to call our embassy in Tripoli... it is better that at this early stage, they get in touch with our embassy" to arrange to be evacuated.
So far, only 831 of the estimated 13,000 Filipinos working in Libya have returned home despite regular fighting between militia groups that has killed more than 200 people and wounded another 1,000 in the past two weeks, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
The government announced a "mandatory" evacuation of its nationals last month after the beheading of a Filipino construction worker abducted by unknown suspects. That killing was followed by the gang rape of a Filipina nurse in the capital Tripoli on Wednesday.
Such security problems have prompted thousands of people to flee, mostly overland to neighboring Tunisia, and numerous countries have closed their embassies and urged their citizens to leave.
Coloma said that while some Filipinos may be stubborn, "once their lives are at stake, they will be convinced to go".
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who is in Tunisia, has been meeting with workers who flee across the Libyan border before being flown back to the Philippines.
Del Rosario said the government would take steps to evacuate people by sea as soon as possible and that "a vessel has been identified to secure Filipinos safely from Benghazi and Misrata, to be ferried to Malta for their onward flights to the Philippines", the department said in a statement.
The Philippines previously launched a mass evacuation of its workers in Libya in 2011, when most of the 30,000 Filipinos there left during the violent chaos leading to the toppling of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Filipinos make up large proportion of Libya's medical personnel and health officials there are warning of a possible collapse of the healthcare system if all the Filipinos leave.
About 10 million Filipinos work around the world, earning more money in a wide range of skilled and unskilled sectors than they could in their impoverished homeland.
Meanwhile, a British Navy ship was evacuating British nationals from Libya, the Foreign Office said, with worsening security problems forcing thousands of people to flee.
A ministry spokesman confirmed that an "assisted departure is currently being carried out" and that further details would be given once all passengers were on board and the ship was in safe waters.
Britain is also planning to temporarily suspend its embassy operations in the troubled north African country, the Foreign Office said.
Sunday's operation is likely to resemble the one used in 2011 during the bloody uprising which ousted Gadhafi, when a Royal Navy ship evacuated foreigners.
A launch protected by armed Royal Marines was expected to be sent into Tripoli port to collect British and foreign evacuees and ferry them to HMS Enterprise, a survey vessel.
Michael Aron, Britain's ambassador in Tripoli, said Friday he had "reluctantly" decided to leave due to the worsening local fighting.
Libya has suffered chronic insecurity since Gadhafi's overthrow, with the new government unable to check militias that helped to remove him and facing a growing threat from Islamist groups.
Fighting between the rival militias has forced the closure of Tripoli's international airport, while Islamist groups are battling army special forces in the eastern city of Benghazi.
In the past week, many countries have ordered their citizens to leave and, in some cases, have evacuated them.
Between 100 and 300 Britons are thought to be in Libya. Many British consular staff were evacuated last Monday.
"Fighting has intensified in Tripoli, including around the British embassy compounds," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
"In the light of the deteriorating security situation, we are taking steps temporarily to suspend operations at the British embassy in Tripoli after the planned assisted departure of British nationals," he said.
"We advise against all travel to Libya and urge British nationals in Libya to leave through commercially available means."
Source: Agence France Presse
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