Gadhafi kin's 4 Pinay maids safe

MANILA, Philippines -  One of the four Filipinas working for a relative of deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has informed Philippine officials that they are safe but want to be repatriated.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis was able to talk by telephone with one of the four Filipinas who are believed to be working for a relative of Gadhafi.

“The OFW (overseas Filipino worker) said they are safe and secure where they are now, but signified their desire to leave their employer and come back home as soon as possible,” said DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez.

He said the Philippine embassy in Tripoli “will exert all efforts to assist the Filipinos in the Gadhafi household in their safe release from their employer through diplomatic channels at an opportune time given the security situation the four OFWs are in.”

Meanwhile, the lone OFW repatriate who left Tripoli on Sept. 1 was scheduled to arrive in Manila yesterday morning via Gulf Air.

The OFW from the Oil Hospital in Tripoli joined Seguis and another DFA officer in the third boat chartered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which sailed to the Port of Benghazi where they disembarked. From Benghazi, they traveled by land to Cairo, Egypt for a total of 16 hours.

Seguis was sent by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario to Tripoli to assist the embassy in the repatriation efforts of OFWs in Libya.

“Our embassy in Tripoli will continue to assist our OFWs who have decided to remain working in Libya,” Hernandez said.

The DFA said the repatriation of the four Filipina maids of Gadhafi’s kin will be one of the first priorities of the Philippine government once Libya’s National Transitional Council assumes power.

DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said the matter is a sensitive case and embassy officials in Tripoli could not just go to the Gadhafi compound, which is surrounded by armed men.

He said the safest way is by coordinating with the Philippine government’s counterpart in Libya.

Last March, the DFA said the four Filipinos working for a nephew of Gadhafi were safe but they were not allowed to go out of their employer’s house in Tripoli due to the volatile situation.

The DFA said relatives of the four OFWs clarified during a telephone call that their kin work for Gadhafi’s nephew, not for the deposed leader’s immediate family.

The relatives availed themselves of the department’s “Libreng Tawag,” and were informed about the situation in Tripoli.

The DFA instructed the embassy to make arrangements for their repatriation.

As of late August, around 1,600 Filipinos were still believed to be in Libya, many of them nurses treating casualties of the months-long uprising against Gadhafi.