24 March 2014 – The Philippine Embassies in Damascus, Syria and Beirut, Lebanon with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Damascus and Lebanon once again facilitated the successful repatriation of another batch of 38 Filipinos from Syria last February 13. The IOM provided the airfare, land transportation and meals of the repatriates.
A team from the Embassy in Beirut composed of Vice Consul Rona Beth Goce and Labor Attaché Bulyok Nilong assisted the repatriates at the Masna’a border crossing. Representatives of IOM-Beirut were also on hand 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 Dennis John Briones and Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) and Legal Officer Junaid Ali composed the Embassy airport team.
The group arrived in Manila on February 14.
This was the 46th cross-border operation undertaken by the two Embassies. END