More than 1,000 Filipinos in Lebanon have sought assistance from the Philippine government to be repatriated amid the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Tuesday.
“So far over 500 have already returned to the Philippines with over 1,000 being processed for return,” said DFA Assistant Secretary Robert Ferrer in an interview with Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon.
The United Nations in Geneva earlier reported that tens of thousands of people had fled their homes in Lebanon since Monday, amid Israeli strikes.
“We are gravely concerned about the serious escalation in the attacks that we saw yesterday,” UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva.
“Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” he said.
Israeli air strikes killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, marking the deadliest bombardment in nearly two decades.
Monday’s bombardment of Lebanon was by far the largest, not just in the past year, but since the war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in the summer of 2006.
Longtime foes Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas staged an unprecedented attack on Israel last October 7.
The DFA official called on Filipinos in Lebanon to avail themselves of the government’s voluntary repatriation program, while commercial flights are still available.
The DFA said that there are still some overseas Filipinos who do not want to return home yet, but it noted that the Philippine Embassy in Beirut is planning a mass repatriation soon if the situation worsens.
“Now our embassy has been coordinating with the Filipino community and taking the necessary steps to initiate mass repatriation in case the need arises,” said Ferrer. With AFP
