The Philippine Government on July 31 said it was preparing to evacuate
13,000 citizens from Libya as some Filipinos were abducted and killed
amid escalating violence in the North African country.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who headed to Libya’s
neighbouring Tunisia to organise the evacuation, said one major
challenge is to convince Philippine people to leave Libya as soon as
possible to avoid the perils of conflicts.
He said despite such
dangers, many of the Filipinos, mostly construction and health workers,
refused to leave since they feared of being unemployed back home, adding
that only about 700 had left Libya.
On July
20, the Philippine Government ordered an evacuation and banned its
citizens from travelling to the country after the body of a Philippine
construction worker was found in Benghazi, the second largest city of
Libya.-VNA