Manila: The Philippines on Monday told its nearly 60,000 citizens in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen to sit tight and be vigilant while warning against travelling to Arab nations rocked by deadly protests.
However the government said it had no immediate plans to bring home 31,000 Filipinos in Bahrain, 26,000 in Libya and 1,400 in Yemen, part of a huge labour force abroad earning close to $19 billion a year for the country.
"There is no necessity for repatriation at this time," foreign department spokesman Ed Malaya told AFP.
Malaya said the workers there were advised to stay indoors, avoid protest sites and wait for further government guidance.
At the same time, a foreign ministry statement said Filipinos should avoid non-essential travel to these countries for the time being.
"The (government) advises Filipinos who have plans to proceed to Libya, Bahrain or Yemen to defer non-essential and non-urgent travels, until the security situations in those countries have stabilised," it said.
