Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 9) — Around 1,600 Filipinos in Iraq want to return to the Philippines through the government’s repatriation program, amid tensions between the United States and Iran, Special Envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu said.
The Cabinet secretary said these Filipinos in Iraq have expressed intent to avail of repatriation, with 29 of them ready to fly home as early as Thursday.
“We have to start moving them out habang open pa ang airport, clear pa ang mga kalsada. Kung mag-deteriorate ang situation, mas mahirap nang ilabas sila,” Cimatu said during a briefing before he heads to Qatar as President Rodrigo Duterte’s envoy. “I would still really suggest we have to move them out already even if there’s no conflict yet.”
Data from the Department of Labor and Employment showed there are 2,191 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Iraq, while records from the Department of Foreign Affairs counted 4,204 Filipinos in the Middle Eastern country as of June 2019.
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Tensions are high in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, as it became the battleground of United States and Iranian forces over the past week.
CNN reported that major international airlines have begun diverting flights from Iranian airspace after Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at two Iraqi military bases that house US forces. On Wednesday afternoon, small rockets landed near the Green Zone in Baghdad an area hosting the embassies of the US and other western nations.
On Wednesday, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the mandatory repatriation of Filipinos in Iraq, although his spokesman Salvador Panelo later clarified that the workers can opt to evacuate to a safe place instead.
Cimatu said rapid response teams have been deployed in Qatar and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to assist Filipinos who would be flying out of Iraq. The team would be in charge of booking flights to Manila, as well as securing transit clearances and hotel bookings should it take a long wait to book plane seats for OFWs.
As for Filipinos in Iraq, Panelo said evacuation and repatriation efforts will continue until they “are no longer in peril.”
Cimatu said they are operating on the premise that the Baghdad International Airport would stay open, but said Philippine authorities are also prepared for land travel northeast to Erbil or even to Jordan should the main gateway be shut. The vehicles would carry the Philippine flag as an indication that they are civilians not part of the armed conflict.
He welcomed statements of the competing nations that they will stand down, calling them “very comforting.” But he added there could be bigger incidents to come.
There was no explanation why Manila called off mandatory repatriation of Filipinos from Iran and Lebanon, but the announcement was made amid what appears to be a deescalation of tensions between the United States and Iran.
“In my opinion, I don’t believe that’s it. There’s another one coming, bigger probably,” Cimatu said, noting that the US has sent additional troops to Iraq.
Cimatu said it’s best to wait for at least two weeks to see if the situation has really cooled. “The situation is unpredictable, sometimes there are some instances of a very surprise missile attack,” he added.
Meanwhile, the special envoy appealed to undocumented Filipinos in Iraq to get in touch with authorities.
READ: Duterte to side with Americans if Filipinos harmed in US-Iran conflict – Panelo
“We cannot account undocumented OFWs… We don’t know where are they, but we can communicate with them through their families here in the Philippines. We’d like to request their families to move them out and take advantage of this repatriation for their own safety,” Cimatu added.
OFWs who cannot retrieve their passports would be allowed to return home, with Cimatu saying that they will have to secure a travel document from the DFA. He cited that some employers do not return the passports of their Filipino employees.
The Environment Secretary and retired military general said the worst-case scenario they are seeing is that US bases in nearby Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar would also be attacked. Filipinos in Iran and Lebanon have also been told to fly home on Wednesday, but Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the alert level in these areas have been scaled down.
“Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world,” CNN quoted U.S. President Donald Trump as saying on Wednesday morning. The night before, incoming messages from Iran sent through back-channels appeared to have offered Trump a new opportunity to deescalate, the report said.
