14 January 2014- The Philippine Embassies in Damascus and Beirut, Lebanon once again facilitated the successful repatriation to the Philippines of another batch of 21 Filipinos from Syria on January 8. 

The group was brought by the personnel of the Philippine Embassy in Damascus to the Syrian-Lebanese border by bus.

A team from the Embassy in Beirut composed of Vice Consul Dennis John Briones and Cultural Officer Gladys Perey assisted in the same-day cross-border repatriation.  The Embassy team frist assisted the group when they crossed the Syrian-Lebanese border.  After undergoing entry immigration procedures in Masna’a, the Embassy team escorted the repatriates direnctly  to the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut. 

At exactly 4:30 P.M., the repatriates left Beirut for Abu Dhabi where they took their flight to Manila.  The group arrived in Manila on January 9 via Etihad Airways flight EY 424.

This was the 44th cross-border operation undertaken by the two Embassies. Their arrival brought the number of Filipinos repatriated from Syria to 5,137. Of that number, 2,112 were repatriated via Lebanon. END