The Department of Labor and Employment has barred Filipino workers from being deployed to Libya’s capital of Tripoli and 13 areas around it.
DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced over radio station dzMM today that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration governing board decision after receiving the formal notice from the Department of Foreign Affairs raising the contingency Alert Level in Tripoli to 3.
Most of the Filipinos affected in the deployment ban are oil field workers and medical workers.
“Now therefore, that POEA Governing Board in a meeting duly conceived, resolves at it hereby resolved after consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs hereby enforces a deployment ban on the processing and deployment of all OFWs, including crewing and shore leave of Filipino seafarers in Tripoli and areas within 100 km radius of the capital identified in the DFA bulletin,” Bello read.
Aside from Tripoli, also affected by the deployment ban are the following areas:
Tajoura; Ghot Romman; Qaraboli; Qasr Khiyar, Esbea; Tarhuna; Bani Waled; Gharyan, Aziziya; Warshifana; Zawia; Surman; and Sabratha.
Areas in the east of Libya, including Benghazi, the base of the parallel government mounting attacks to Tripoli, are not included in the deployment ban as the contingency Alert Level is still at 2.
There are estimated 1,000 OFWs in Tripoli and in areas outside it.
The DFA had earlier appealed to them to seek safer grounds or volunteer for repatriation.
Bello said they have not received any reports that Filipinos are affected by the ongoing clashes between the two armies seeking control over Libya.
Photo credit: REUTERS
