Philippine Special Envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu is flying to Baghdad tomorrow to oversee the mandatory repatriation of the over 1,000 Filipinos in Iraq.
Cimatu, concurrent Environment Secretary and former Armed Forces chief of staff, said the Philippine Charge d’affaires in Baghdad has already touched base with the Filipinos in Iraq to assemble at the Embassy premises.
There are at least 1,640 Filipinos in Iraq, around 600 of them are working at the US Embassy or US facilities in Baghdad.
Iran has fired missiles at two Iraqi bases hosting US troops in retaliation to the US forces’ killing of a top and popular Iranian general last Friday.
“The plan calls for (repatriation by air) — if the airport in Baghdad is still open, then they will use that. If not, they will travel by land to Amman, Jordan, or through the north in Erbil where there is an airport where they can fly to Dubai or Qatar for eventual flight to Manila,” Cimatu said during a media conference.
The special envoy said this is “pre-emptive” evacuation.
The former general stressed though that the evacuation will be “mandatory” or be forced upon the Filipino workers in Iraq.
He said there are Filipinos who were illegally recruited to Iraq and there are those who have already signed up for immediate repatriation. This first batch of Filipino repatriates will be his priority upon arrival tomorrow in Baghdad.
“This will be the concern when I arrive there tomorrow how to get them out. If the Baghdad airport is open, that’s ok. Otherwise they will be evacuated by land. But I told them [Embassy staff] to hire vehicles, because I was told they only have three buses and load more gasoline kasi mahaba-haba tong tatakbuhin nila,” Cimatu added.
