(Eagle News) – Thirteen more Filipinos from Ukraine arrived in the country on Tuesday, March 1, as the Philippine government continued the repatriation of its nationals from the war-torn country.
This brings to 19 the number of Filipinos who were repatriated from Ukraine, including the six who were repatriated on February 18, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
There are 181 Filipinos in Ukraine based on DFA’s earlier reports.
The 13 Filipinos arrived past 10 p.m. on Tuesday at NAIA Terminal III via an Emirates Airlines flight and were welcomed by Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola and Assistant Secretary Paul Raymund Cortes.
They were part of the 40 evacuees who left Kyiv for Lviv and were welcomed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. at the Poland border.
-More Filipinos in Ukraine want to “wait it out”-
But the DFA said there were more Filipinos who wanted to “wait it out” in Ukraine thinking that things would get better in two or three months.
Undersecretary Arriola said that they discovered 33 Filipinos in Lviv, Ukraine, who chose to stay there. More Filipinos also went to Lviv from various parts of Ukraine but they do not want to be repatriated.
“They just want to wait it out, and wait and see. So, what we’re trying to do is to be in constant contact with the Filipinos who choose to stay and at least know where they are and also at the same time give them assistance or care packages kung kinakailangan po nila ito,” she said.
Some of these Filipinos who chose to stay are married to Ukrainians and they do not want to be separated from their families there. Others are household service workers who don’t want to leave their employers. Others are teachers.
“May mga kababayan din tayo na feeling nila gusto na lang nilang i-wait out, maghintay lang talagang matapos iyong kaguluhan at ayaw muna nilang umuwi kasi they like their quality of life there,” Arriola said.
“They like it in Ukraine and they think na matatapos din ito. Iyong iba nga po sinasabi nila, ‘Kaya namin kahit two to three months, we will just wait it out po.,’” she said in a recent Laging Handa press briefing, citing what the other Filipinos in Ukraine feel.
The DFA said that all the repatriation expenses, including transport expenses from Kyiv to Warsaw, food and accommodation in Lviv and Warsaw, RT-PCR test, and airfare to Manila were shouldered by the department’s Assistance-to-Nationals fund.
-DFA to check if there are more Filipinos in Ukraine-
Arriola said that they are also checking if there are actually more Filipinos in Ukraine than the 181 previously reported.
“We are reconciling our data kasi dito rin po sa capital, dito rin sa Manila, tumatawag na rin kami, ginagamit na namin iyong mga Facebook pages,” she said.
Arriola said that six Filipinos fleeing Ukraine were able to enter the neighboring country of Moldova, including a medical student and two Filipinos married to Ukrainians.
“Tapos iyong isa po ay dala pa niya iyong kaniyang anak na baby rin po. Tapos iyong iba po doon, nagwo-work naman sila sa mga international organizations. And then we have at least 10 people who are in Lviv now,” she said.
“We’re still waiting for others for repatriation. We’re still waiting for others to join them tapos itatawid na ulit na namin po sila sa border ng Poland,” Arriola added.
(Eagle News Service)