DFA: Filipinos based in Sri Lanka to get $300 in financial aid, repatriation assistance
MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos based in crisis-hit Sri Lanka may receive a 300 USD financial aid, while those who wish to go back home may also sign up for repatriation assistance.
On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Arriola told state television that while there are only 492 Filipinos in Sri Lanka — and are mostly married to Sri Lankans — they are already seeing the effects of the rising prices of commodities. Arriola noted that prices have already gone up by 45%.
“We stand ready to bring them home. In fact, we will be fielding a Rapid Response Team so that the DFA has a presence in Sri Lanka amid the economic crisis,” Arriola said in a mix of English and Filipino.
With its worst economic crisis coupled with reports of food, fuel, and medicine shortages, people in Sri Lanka have been protesting for weeks.
Meanwhile, Arriola said the Philippines only has an Honorary Consulate in Colombo, Sri Lanka so the response team will consist of personnel from the country’s embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh who will arrive on June 2.
The DFA will also be sending its own staff there this weekend to help out and to list those who want to be come home.
Arriola said those who do not have passports will be given travel documents, while parents of minors will be asked to present their childrens’ birth certificates if they wish to be repatriated.
“‘Yung iba kasi gusto nilang umuwi muna ng Pilipinas sa height ng crisis na ito pero gusto nilang bumalik. So medyo mabigat sa mga Pilipino ‘yung desisyon whether to return to the Philippines kasi married sila sa Sri Lankans,” she said.
(The others want to go home to the Philippines at the height of the crisis, but they also want to come back. So it’s a difficult decision for Filipinos whether to return to the Philippines for the time being because they are married to Sri Lankans.)
As of now, there are 25 Filipinos, including nine minors, who have decided to go back to the Philippines. The DFA already said last week that they are ready to repatriate Filipinos based there.
Arriola said the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration is also helping out, while the DFA has also tapped the Department of Social Welfare and Development to assist the Filipino nationals once they are back in the country.
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