THE Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said no request for repatriation to Manila has been made by Filipinos in Libya despite the massive flooding that hit the conflict-torn North African country, leaving thousands dead and missing.
Death tolls given by Libyan officials are varying but all are in the thousands, with thousands more missing.
Derna Mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi said deaths in the city could reach 18,000-20,000, based on the extent of the damage.
DFA Undersecretary Jose Eduardo de Vega said the embassy in Tripoli is in communication with leaders of the Filipino community in Libya, particularly those in the eastern part of the country where the catastrophic floods took place caused by storm “Daniel.”
“No request for repatriation in Libya. For our kababayans in Libya who wish to be repatriated to Manila, just contact the Philippine Embassy and we will repatriate you,” De Vega said.
He said those in the Philippines who may have missing relatives in Libya should immediately contact the DFA through the OFW Help Facebook page so that the embassy in Tripoli can assist in locating their relatives.
On Wednesday, the DFA said the embassy had not received any report of a Filipino casualty because of the flooding.
Around 1,100 Filipinos are living and working in eastern Libya according to the DFA, including 90 who are in the areas badly hit by storm Daniel.
Thirty more Filipinos are in the district of Dema, 50 in the district of Jabel al Akhdar, and 10 in the city of Tobruk.
The department said the majority of the Filipinos in those areas are working medical professionals, and most of them have returned to their work after being relocated to higher grounds by their employers.
Rescue teams have arrived from Egypt, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Qatar. Turkey sent a ship carrying equipment to set up two field hospitals. Italy sent three planes of supplies and personnel, as well as two navy ships that had difficulty offloading because Derna’s debris-choked port was almost unusable.
Rescue work is hindered by the political fractures in a country of 7 million people, at war on-and-off and with no government holding nationwide reach since a NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The devastation was clear from high points above Derna, where the densely populated city center was now a wide, flat crescent of earth with stretches of muddy water gleaming in the sun.
The beach was littered with clothes, toys, furniture, shoes and other possessions swept out of homes by the torrent. Streets were covered in deep mud and strewn with uprooted trees and hundreds of wrecked cars, many flipped on their sides or roofs. One car was wedged on a gutted building’s second-floor balcony.
“I survived with my wife but I lost my sister,” said Mohamed Mohsen Bujmila, a 41-year-old engineer. “My sister lives downtown where most of the destruction happened. We found the bodies of her husband and son and buried them.”
He also found the bodies of two strangers in his apartment.
As he spoke an Egyptian search-and-rescue team nearby recovered the body of his neighbor. — With Reuters
