Manila: The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs has ordered the mandatory evacuation of Filipinos in Tripoli as the security situation in the Libyan capital continues to deteriorate.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said he had informed President Rodrigo Duterte of his move to place the alert level for Filipinos in Tripoli at “4”.
“Yesterday [Tuesday], I informed President that I raised the Alert Level to 4 in Tripoli + 100 kms around. More mortar fire, more Filipinos hurt,” he said.
He added that while Alert 4 equates to mandatory evacuation under the four-step security and safety level protocol of the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs), it cannot, at the moment, compel overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to leave immediately.
Some Filipinos had refused to leave Tripoli or Libya. A few had said that their employers were withholding their salaries.
“What is mandatory is that DFA stays in Tripoli until last OFW goes — and then it [alert level 4] stays,” Locsin said.
He said the DFA raised the alert level idue to increased threats to the safety of the more than 1,000 Filipinos who are still there.
Likewise, he told Filipinos still in Tripoli “to seriously consider repatriation before the situation escalates further”.
Earlier, he called on the families of the OFWs in the Philippines to help convince their relatives to evacuate Tripoli “before it is too late.”
Philippine Charge d’ Affaires to Libya, Elmer Cato said the conditions in the Libyan capital continue to deteriorate. He said that last Tuesday some Filipinos were caught in the middle of a fierce gunfight in Tripoli’s Salahuddin district.