Finally, her employer gave her passport and brought her to the embassy.

Escaped routes bombed

Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Marianito Roque earlier said it would take at least three months to evacuate the rest of more than 30,000 Filipinos still trapped in Lebanon. But he also said that the OWWA and the DFA will work together to speed up the repatriation of Filipinos in the war-torn country, targeting about 10,000 this week.

However, on Aug. 4, evacuation became more difficult after the Israeli warplanes destroyed four bridges along the coastal highway leading north from the Beirut towards the Syrian border.

As a result, 17 buses carrying the third batch of 450 OFWs were unable to pass. The United States-funded International Organization for Migration (IOM) paid for the repatriation of the said OFWs as well as the evacuation of the two previous batches of OFWs.

The DFA said the evacuation would now be by sea which would take longer.

The Philippine government has repatriated a total of 2,200 OFWs as of Aug. 5. There are about 34,000 OFWs in Lebanon, mostly working as domestic helpers. About 2,000 are based in southern Lebanon which bore the brunt of Israel attacks.

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