AROUND 300 Filipinos were in the process of evacuating war-stricken Sudan on Wednesday on board seven buses hired by the Philippine government to facilitate their land travel to the border of Egypt, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
This is the second batch of Philippine government-facilitated extraction since the war erupted in Sudan last April 15.
DFA Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said the Philippine government is now taking advantage of the 72-hour ceasefire in Sudan.
The evacuation is being fast-tracked by Philippine authorities to take advantage of a limited window offered during a cease-fire. In the rush to tend to the Filipino workers, the vehicle carring top officials of the Philippine Embassy in Cairo—which has jurisdiction over Sudan—figured in an accident at dawn, leaving Vice Consul Bojer Capati with back injuries. He was taken to a local hospital in Egypt.
Ambassador Ezzedin Tago and his driver who were also in the car with Capati were not injured.
The car, which rolled over twice and hit a road barrier Tuesday 4am (10am Philippine time), was a wreck. The ambassador continued attending to the evacuation tasks right after.
According to Undersecretary de Vega, contracting buses to transport Filipinos out of Khartoum is very challenging. The cost is very expensive, almost the cost of a plane ticket. Thus, the government was forced to outbid the other foreign embassies or consulates in order to secure buses.
The Philippine Embassy in Cairo had earlier dispatched a consular team at the border to fetch the Filipinos in Wādī Halfā in northern Sudan. But it turned out, Egyptian authorities have become stricter at the border, stopping a deluge of fleeing refugees coming from Sudan.
De Vega said Tago’s team was rushing at dawn because the clearance site at the port of entry was about to open.
The busload of 50 Filipino Islamic scholars who left Khartoum Monday, and another batch of OFWs, were stranded at the border and required additional documentation.
Then there’s another group of 21 Filipino evacuees who fled on their own volition who have already gone past the Egypt border but are being held. Egyptian immigration authorities are threatening to deport the Filipinos back to Sudan if their papers are not processed.
Many Filipinos left Sudan without valid passports or exit visas to Egypt.
Second batch
In the latest update, Ambassador Tago is flying to Aswan City, south of Egypt, to personally facilitate the entry of the second batch of Filipinos evacuees.
From Aswan City, he will travel by land to the border in Sudan.
Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople, Overseas Workers Welfare Administrator Arnel Ignacio, and DMW Undersecretary Hans Cacdac are also on the way to Cairo Wednesday, after a stopover in Dubai.
At least 71 Filipinos from Sudan are already at the border of Sudan and Egypt; 50 of them were transported by the Philippine honorary consulate in Khartoum, while the rest fled on their own.
As thousands of Sudanese and other foreigners flee the war, Egypt has suddenly become more strict with documentary requirements.
Many Filipinos fled the war without valid passports or visas. A consular team from the Philippine Embassy in Cairo was dispatched to assist Filipinos in Aswan City but was overwhelmed by calls for help from Filipinos at different ports of entry at the border.
A number of Filipinos also departed Khartoum and went to Port Sudan, east of the African state.
The Philippine Embassy is also considering sending a team inside Sudan —to Wādī Halfā near the border with Egypt, and in Port Sudan.
At least 740 Filipinos, mostly professionals, registered at the Philippine Embassy in Cairo. There are also farm workers, students and maids.
Of these, 350 have requested for repatriation; 80 of them were on the first batch or have already left on their own.
So far, there is no report of Filipinos killed due to the conflict.
The DFA has confirmed one Filipino was wounded last week, hit by a stray bullet in the hand.