THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday placed Libya under a single crisis alert level following significant improvements in security conditions in the civil war-plagued North African country.
In an advisory, the DFA said Libya will now be under Alert Level 3 (voluntary repatriation), therefore, updating the Alert Level 4 (mandatory repatriation) imposed in 2019 in Tripoli and areas within a 100-kilometer radius and the Alert Level 2 (restricted phase) imposed in areas outside of the 100-kilometer radius.
The DFA instituted the mandatory repatriation of Filipinos in 2019 following fresh clashes between rival militias vying for power.
Libya had been without a central government since 2011 when long-time leader Muammar Khadaffi was ousted in a popular revolt.
“The decision was made on the observation that, while the political and security conditions in Libya remain fragile, there have been significant improvements in the country since 2019,” the DFA said.
It noted that Libya, despite the political divide between the east and the west-based governments, is currently not under a full-blown external attack from both sides.
“Conflicts in Libya, since 2019, are localized, sporadic, and targeted at combatants, which are not features of a large-scale civil conflict, but rather of low-intensity conflicts,” the DFA added.
Moreover, it said there are ongoing efforts, primarily under the auspices of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, to unite the two governments through the conduct of elections, and to unify and strengthen the country’s security apparatus, which have contributed to the significant improvement in security and political conditions in the country.
DFA data show there are around 2,300 Filipino workers living and working in Libya.
Majority of the Filipinos, according to the DFA are “veterans of conflict, having survived the civil wars of 2011 and 2014-2020, and the fight with the Daesh that accompanied the civil wars, and have thus adapted to the instability in the country.”
“The OFWs in Libya are more concerned instead with pending labor issues, which decreased from 411 in 2022 to 305 as of June 2023. The resolution of these labor cases may be attributed to the Philippine Embassy in Libya’s conduct of job site visits and labor dialogues, and representations with companies and relevant government agencies,” the DFA added.
In a related development, the DFA assured Filipinos in Libya that in the absence of a resident Migrant Workers Office in Tripoli, it will continue to monitor the situation and be responsible for responding to appeals for assistance of Filipinos even as the Assistance-To-Nationals function of the department has already been transferred to the Department of Migrant Workers.
The DFA said once the security and political conditions further improves and the pending labor issues are resolved, the government would review the conditions for the gradual relaxation of the deployment ban of new Filipino workers through selective deployment.
