17 October 2014 - In line with the continuous effort of the Philippine government to evacuate Filipinos from Syria, another batch of 23 Filipino nationals were successfully repatriated to the Philippines on September 29 through the close coordination by the Philippine Embassies in Lebanon and Syria, with the logistical support of the International Organization Migration (IOM), which provided the airfare, land transportation and meals of the repatriates.
To ensure the smooth transit of the repatriates in Lebanon, an Embassy team composed of Vice Consul Rona Beth Goce, Embassy Property Officer Chloe Silverio, Embassy translator and driver Ahmad Saeb Eido, along with IOM personnel, assisted the repatriates from the time they arrived at the Masna’a border coming from Syria up to their land travel to the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut where the repatriates took their flight to Manila via Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The repatriates left Beirut at exactly 7:50 P.M. and were scheduled to arrive in Manila on September 30 at 4:35 P.M. via Emirates flight EK 332.
This was the 56th cross-border operation undertaken by the two Philippine Embassies. The departure of this group of 23 Filipinos brought to 2,434 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