The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Thursday, September 27, has imposed a total deployment ban of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Libya.
In a statement, labor secretary Silvestre Bello III said that the deployment ban was a response to the Alert Level 3 raised by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) due to the escalation of violence in the country.
“If there is an Alert Level 3 from the DFA, an automatic deployment ban is imposed. If we will allow the OFWs to leave, we will just be exposing them to danger,” labor undersecretary Jacinto Paras said.
Paras meantime urged OFWs stranded in Libya who wish to come home and be repatriated back to the Philippines to immediately seek assistance from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) or with the officers from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).
In July, three Filipino nationals and one Korean national were abducted while working at a water plant in south eastern Libya.
A video released by The Libya Observer shows the abducted foreign nationals crying for help from the Philippine and Korean government.
The four abducted men are lined up sharing a bottle of water while being guarded by a masked armed man behind them.
“Mr. President, please help us. We don’t have anything. We don’t have food. We don’t have medicine. Please help us, we are already suffering,” one of the Filipino men pleaded.
