THE Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) yesterday said 152 Filipino workers in war-torn Sudan are set to arrive in the country tomorrow (Thursday), days after they were evacuated by the Philippine government.
Two commercial flights of Saudia Airlines will be traveling to Manila, via Jeddah and Riyadh, carrying the 152 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople, in a statement, said the two groups of 80 and 72 OFWs “belong to the 340 OFWs that were crossed from Sudan.”
Ople also said the DMW is in the process of chartering a flight to bring home the remaining OFWs, and another batch.
“We are negotiating with Philippine Airlines (PAL) for a chartered flight to bring the remaining 188 OFWs from the group of 340 rescued, plus an anticipated 104 OFWs that would be arriving this week after successfully clearing the Egyptian border,” said Ople.
“Another bigger batch of OFWs from Sudan will be coming home hopefully via a chartered PAL flight,” she added.
Ople said government will remain available to assist other OFWs in Sudan needing repatriation.
“DMW is committed to bring as many of our kababayans (countrymen) home so that the process of healing from the trauma of Sudan’s civil war can commence,” said Ople.
The Department of Foreign Affairs earlier said 33 more Filipinos evacuated from Sudan were are set to arrive late yesterday.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Eduardo Jose de Vega said the 33 are students who were stranded in Sudan due to the clashes between Army troops loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo before they were evacuated to Egypt.
De Vega said the group belong to the first batch of Filipinos who were evacuated from Khartoum to Cairo in Egypt where they waited for their repatriation flights to Manila.
It is the third batch of Filipinos repatriated from Sudan.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Embassy in Cairo, which also exercises jurisdiction over Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, recommended that Filipinos wishing to evacuate from the African country due to the continued clashes between Army troops and paramilitary units should “proceed to Port Sudan” for evacuation.
“The Consulate will request that they be included in the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)-led evacuation mounted from Port Sudan,” the embassy said in an advisory late Monday night.
To recall, the first Filipinos evacuated from Sudan were three women workers of Saudi Airlines who were among the 157 Saudi citizens and foreign nationals rescued and ferried to a naval base in Jeddah by Saudi forces.
The embassy said Filipinos can also enter Egypt via land travel through buses it rented.
The embassy did not say how many Filipinos are still in Sudan.
On Monday, DFA Assistant Secretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Paul Cortes said of the 616 Filipinos who were evacuated from Khartoum, 414 were already in Egypt, while others were either at the Sudan-Egypt border or at the Port Sudan bound for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Earlier, the DFA said there could be at least 700 Filipinos in Sudan, including undocumented workers. — With Ashzel Hachero
