Libya, Turkey apologize for advisory

Libya and Turkey apologized to the Philippines yesterday — Tripoli for banning Filipino workers and Ankara for advising Turkish nationals not to travel to the Philippines — because of SARS, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Delia Albert said. Turkey has withdrawn its travel advisory, she added.

The Philippines yesterday filed diplomatic protests with Libya over a ban on hiring Filipino workers because of SARS, and with Turkey over a travel advisory related to the illness.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said he had handed the written protest to the Libyan ambassador after Tripoli Thursday indefinitely suspended the hiring of Filipino contract workers in case they brought Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) into the country.

Another note was handed to the Turkish ambassador protesting an April 11 advisory that urged its nationals against traveling to the Philippines due to SARS.

"Our policy is to protest any actions by countries that will issue an advisory against Filipinos because of SARS," Ople said.

He conceded that there had been some cases of SARS in the Philippines but remarked that "it takes a certain scale for a country to be classified as a SARS-infected country."

The health department has said there were four SARS cases in the Philippines, including two deaths.

Ople said the cases of Filipinos infected with SARS were extremely isolated, adding "the scale is infinitely small."

Libyan ambassador Salem Adam said meanwhile that his country would soon lift the ban on hiring Filipino workers after getting a report on the full situation of SARS in the Philippines.

He said the ban was a precautionary measure imposed on 25 countries and that it was "only for a couple of days... to make sure there are no serious problems."

Philippine health authorities had promised to send him a report on the SARS situation, Adam said.

Turkish Ambassador Tanju Sumer acknowledged that the travel advisory against the Philippines "was a mistake on our part and we will re-assess and correct it in a very short time."

Assistant Foreign Secretary Jose Brillantes said Manila deployed about 6,000 contract workers a year to Libya and getting the ban on workers lifted was "important to the Philippine government." – AFP, Pia Lee-Brago