InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines -– Ten Filipinos, including four children, who fled the armed hostilities in Syria are arriving in Manila Tuesday night, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Two of the children are eight years old, while the others are aged 11 and 15. They have been assisted by the Philippine Embassy in Damascus to escape the turmoil in the conflict-stricken Middle East state and start life anew in the Philippines.
Of the four, three are children of a former Filipino community leader, while one was born to a Filipino mother and a Syrian father.
They will be arriving at 10:10 p.m. aboard emirates flight EK 334 together with six other Filipino workers. A larger batch of 27 overseas Filipino workers arrived in Manila on July 9, the DFA said.
These two latest batches of Filipinos who availed of repatriation being offered by the government are in addition to a total of 10 other Filipinos who arrived from Syria on June 26, 27, and 29.
Presently, a total of 1,734 Filipinos have been repatriated since a mandatory repatriation plan was carried out by the DFA in Syria in December 2011 after declaring the security situation there under crisis alert level 4. Level 4 requires the mandatory evacuation of all Filipinos in the country due to escalating violence between the Syrian government and opposition forces.
There is an estimated 10,000 Filipinos, working mostly as domestic helpers in Syria.
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