Libya News
Eric E. Apolonio, Manila Standard Today
March 9, 2011
OVER 1,000 Filipinos from Libya arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Tuesday, the biggest single-day OFW arrival.
Hanna Mae Bisana, a 24-year old nurse who arrived on Qatar Airlines flight QR-648 from Doha together with 21 others, said the situation had turned critical at the state-owned Al-Hawari Hospital where she was working.
Casualties from civil unrest were rising everyday as more patients were treated for gunshot wounds, she said.
Other Filipino nurses from Al-Hawari Hospital complained that they were given only 200 Libyan dinars as allowance going home by hospital management.
Nurse Voltaire Legros Reynes from the Algila Hospital in Tripoli disclosed that hundreds of nurses decided to stay in Libya in the hope that the political situation would improve.
Reynes said he understood the predicament of his co-nurses who decided to stay for economic reasons.
“They have no choice, if they abandoned their posts, no benefits will be given to them to the tune of around 20,000 dinars. Some of them worked for the last 18 years, and leaving Libya for safety is no option for some of them,” Reynes said.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Administration Rafael Seguis said the government had accomplished its target of repatriating about 12,000 Filipinos from Libya.
Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment said displaced OFWs from Libya would be re-hired and prioritized for overseas employment while those who opt to stay in the Philippines will be given livelihood programs and jobs.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the licensed recruitment agencies that hired and sent OFWs to Libya have assured the department that they would prioritize OFWs repatriated from Libya for deployment.
The DoLE and the Philippine Overseas Employment Association have conducted job fairs in Mandaluyong City, for 25,000 overseas and 2,500 local job openings.
Baldoz said 28 land-based and four sea-based international manpower agencies and employers are offering various overseas opportunities, most of which require professional, technical, skilled, and semi-skilled workers. With Vito Barcelo