The escalating political tension in Libya urged the Philippine government to raise the alert level in this Middle Eastern country to 4. This alert level demands mandatory evacuation and repatriation of Filipinos and the cost will be shouldered by the government. According to the data from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), an estimate of 1,600 Filipinos are still in Tripoli and other cities in Libya. Many of them are working as nurses and medical workers. The sad news is that out of this number, only 91 Filipinos expressed their wiliness to be repatriated.

The Philippine Embassy in Libya is closely monitoring the situation 24/7 and the hotline numbers of the DFA for families of Filipinos who are in Libya are still open: 834-3240, 834-3245, and 834-3333.

Read the full article on Libya news here.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recently announced that repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Libya can now exchange their Libyan dinars in the Philippines. The new BSP memorandum states that Libyan dinars can be exchanged to pesos to commercial and central banks in the country but there is a limit of Php10,000 and they should exchange the currency within one week after arriving in the Philippines.

The OFW is also required to show proof that they had worked in Libya such as passport and other travel documents.

Read more.

For the benefit of OFWs that are in the midst of the crisis in the countries of Libya and other Middle Eastern countries, here are the contact details of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) 24/7 Operations Center. The details below are also applicable for friends of affected OFWs in New Zealand.

OWWA’s 24/7 OPERATIONS CENTER
Address: 7th St. cor. F.B. Harrison Pasay City, Philippines

OVERSEAS POST HOTLINES (Middles East Crisis)
DFA HOTLINE Nos. – 834-4488 / 834-4596 / 834-4580

LIBYA
00-218-927-485-473
00-218-483-3966
00-218-925-195-079
00-218-728-527-012
00-973-367-464-79

TEL
632.8336992
551-1560
(833OWWA)
632.8917601 – 24

Globe HOTLINE 2917, Press 3 for OWWA
TXT: 63917.898.6992
(TXT.OWWA)
FAX: 632.5516651
E-Mail: opcenter7@owwa.gov.ph, owwa_opcenter@yahoo.com

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) wants to help the families and friends of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that are based in New Zealand and other Middle Eastern countries such as Libya, Yemen and Bahrain communicate with their loved ones. Many are concerned about the situation of OFWs in the Middle East countries due to the ongoing violent protests and the recent earthquake in Christchurch , New Zealand.

That is why the NTC has partnered with Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Pasay City (OWWA) and set up a “Libreng Tawag” booth at the main office of the said government agency in Pasay City.

The free calls will be available for the relatives of affected OFWs from: from March 1-8, 2011 (9:00a.m. to 6:00p.m.).

The free calls initiative is in cooperation with local telcos Globe Telecom, Di— Newsbytes.phgitel Phils. (Sun Cellular), and Smart Communications.

As of this writing, no overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will be allowed to go to three Middle Eastern countries to work. The government recently suspended the recruitment and deployment of OFWs to Bahrain, Yemen and Libya because of the violent protests happening in the countries mentioned.

The secretary of the Labor Department, Rosalinda Baldoz, said in a statement that appeared in the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) website. “I have ordered the suspension of the processing and deployment of [overseas Filipino workers/OFWs ] to Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen.”

Read more.