A NUMBER of Filipinos in Israel have opted to withdraw their request for repatriation after a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran took effect this week, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Most of the Filipinos decided to stay in Israel because they have adapted to situation and are now feeling secure in the wake of the ceasefire, said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega.
Alert Level 3 (voluntary repatriation) remains in place for Israel and Iran.
There are around 30,000 Filipinos living and working in Israel and 1,180 in Iran, mostly married to Iranian nationals.
“Because of the ceasefire announcement, we have kababayans (countrymen), who changed their decisions (to come home),” Migrant Workers Undersecretary Felicitas Bay said in a briefing.
She said over 30 Filipino workers have decided “to stay and work.”
“Many are also having second thoughts over their decision. More than 200, or 202 to be exact, in our figures,” she also said.
They are part of 346 migrant workers who sought repatriation following the escalation of tension between Israel and Iran over the weekend.
“Of the 346 OFWs, we can subtract the 26 that have already returned home, while another 50 are up for repatriation possibly this weekend,” said Bay.
De Vega said of the 346 Filipinos who initially requested repatriation from Israel, only 50 have confirmed they want to be repatriate.
In a TV interview, he said about 20 Filipinos will arrive today or tomorrow. They will fly home from Israel and will no longer go through Jordan.
De Vega also said 102 Filipinos will also be repatriated using the Turkmenistan route and will, probably, arrive in the country today.
In Iran, most Filipinos there opted to stay because they are married to Iranian nationals and have families there, he said.
Meanwhile, anxious Iranians and Israelis sought to resume normal life after 12 days of the most intense confrontation ever between the two foes and a ceasefire that took effect Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would likely seek a commitment from Iran to end its nuclear ambitions at talks next week and credited US strikes on Iran with bringing a swift end to the war between Israel and Tehran.
Trump said his decision to unleash huge bunker-busting bombs in Sunday’s attack had devastated Iran’s nuclear program and called the outcome “a victory for everybody.”
“It was very severe. It was obliteration,” he said, shrugging off an initial assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency that Iran’s path to building a nuclear weapon may have been set back only by months.
Tehran has for decades denied accusations by Western leaders that it is seeking nuclear arms.
Later on Wednesday, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that the U.S. air strikes had “severely damaged” Iran’s nuclear program, but he stopped short of declaring that the program had been destroyed.
The agency confirmed a “body of credible evidence” that several key Iranian facilities were destroyed and would take years to rebuild, he said.
Israel’s nuclear agency assessed the strikes had “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.” The White House also circulated the Israeli assessment, although Trump said he was not relying on Israeli intelligence.
The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, dismissed what he called the “hourglass approach” of assessing damage to Iran’s nuclear program in terms of months needed to rebuild as beside the point for an issue that needed a long-term solution.
“In any case, the technological knowledge is there and the industrial capacity is there. That, no one can deny. So we need to work together with them,” he said. His priority was returning international inspectors to Iranian nuclear sites, which he said was the only way to find out precisely what state they were in. – With Reuters
