OFWs in Yemen asked to evacuate

MANILA, Philippines – A day after he welcomed and presented in Malacañang a Filipino engineer hostaged in Yemen for 19 days, President Aquino appealed to some 1,300 Filipinos in the war-torn country to immediately evacuate.

“We understand the situation is really bad. You’ve seen it in the international news services that the president of Yemen – President (Ali Abdullah) Saleh – was injured,” he said.

“He (Saleh) is recovering in Saudi Arabia. There was an attack on the presidential palace. Obviously that is already condition that warrants what they call stage four or forced repatriation as much as possible,” Aquino said.

“A forced evacuation is probably the strongest term we can use to urge our OFWs in Yemen to leave the country. Of course the 20 embassy personnel cannot literally force them to evacuate,” he said.

The DFA raised the alert level in Yemen because of the worsening political and security situation in the city.

Aquino also commended the DFA and thanked the Yemeni government for the “innovative way” in pressuring the kidnappers to secure the freedom of OFW Ramon de Castro’s kidnappers.

“What they did was to cut off the electricity in the area to pressure the group that was holding him hostage to release him,” he said.

Four sheiks negotiated De Castro's release on May 6 after the Philippine government made representations to the authorities in Yemen, he said.

De Castro, a 46-year-old engineer who had been working in the Middle East since 2003, said he was almost beheaded on April 25 when his kidnappers became impatient after no representative from the Philippine government contacted them for his release after almost a week of captivity.

Thousands of displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have been laid off in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East are also coming home, accor­ding to Migrante International. – Aurea Calica, Mayen Jaymalin