14 February 2014 – The Philippine Embassies in Damascus, Syria and Beirut, Lebanon with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), once again facilitated the successful repatriation of another batch of 35 Filipinos from Syria on January 30. The IOM provided the airfare, land transportation and meals of the repatriates.
A team from the Philippine Embassy in Beirut, composed of Vice Consul Dennis John Briones and Information Officer Edwin Batallones, assisted the repatriates at the Masna’a border. Representatives of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Beirut were also on hand at the border to assist the repatriates. After undergoing entry immigration procedures in Masna’a, the Embassy team escorted the repatriates directly to the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut where another team from the Embassy and IOM assisted them in going through airline and immigration formalities. Vice Consul Rona Beth Goce and Assistance to Nationals/Legal Officer Junaid Ali composed the Embassy airport team.
The group arrived in Manila on January 31 at 4:00 p.m. via Emirates Airlines flight EK 332.
This was the 45thcross-border operation undertaken by the two Embassies. The departure of this group of 35 Filipinos brought to 2,147 the total number of Filipinos repatriated from Syria via the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut since the first cross-border operations began on 12 December 2012. END