Second batch of 20 Pinoys from Israel home soon–DFA
About 20 more Filipinos from Israel are expected to arrive in Manila over the weekend, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Thursday as it considered recommendations to downgrade the alert level in Tel Aviv.
“They could arrive tomorrow or Saturday. Straight from Israel via Bangkok, maybe. [The Department of Migrant Workers, or DMW, is] in charge,” Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega told the Inquirer.
He explained that arrival dates have not been finalized because plane tickets were still being bought at press time.
The first batch of repatriates from the Middle East, primarily from Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Qatar, arrived in the country on Tuesday, while the first group of repatriates from Iran are set to arrive on Friday.
There are 1,180 Filipinos in Iran, mostly married to Iranians, so less than 10 have expressed interest in repatriation, the DMW said.
Of the about 30,000 Filipino workers in Israel, only around 150 are willing to be repatriated since the government raised Alert Level No. 3 in both Israel and Iran, it added.
The Philippine Embassy in Israel has recommended that Alert Level 3 be lowered in Tel Aviv after Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, the DFA said. There was no similar recommendation from the Philippine Embassy in Iran.
“For Israel, there is already a recommendation to lower it to Alert Level 2. But we still have to get the approval of the secretary,” Foreign Assistant Secretary Germinia Aguilar-Usudan said.
The government has four alert levels. Level 1 cautions Filipinos in a country while Level 2 enforces travel restrictions on the said country. Level 3 encourages voluntary repatriation while Level 4 requires Filipinos and their dependents to be repatriated.
