Libya as No-Fly Zone: Supported by Some OFW’s

As of March 9, 2011 Wednesday – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) no-fly zone was supported by some Filpinos based in the Eastern Region of Libya. This is to prevent air raids from either rebels or the camp of Col. Moammar Gaddafi.

Based on news, fighting was still going on in Raslanof, Bin-Jawat, Atsawiya, Misrata, Brega, and other parts of Tripoli.

Tobruk is just only two hours away from the border in Egypt. This part is being used by evacuees from Eastern Libya. But the Filipinos fears that attacks might also happen in this area.

Special arms training are now undergoing in around 10, 000 Libyan youth that have joined the Feb. 17 Youth Revolution, as reports was stated.

In addition to this, the News team of ABS-CBN went to Tobruk to stay there overnight.

The electronic communication is getting harder and tough due to some interferences occur. Such that the internet connection has been down for almost a week now in Libya, as well as the mobile phone services is also getting slow.

So far as the broadcasting is concerned, the members of media could freely move around Benghazi, except only at night where there are armed men roaming around the streets and there are some incidents of firefights.

There are two groups that handle the evacuation of Filipinos from Libya. These two groups are set to pull out of Libya. These are the repatriation team of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Both Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).representatives will wait at the border sites for Filipinos who are still willing to be repatriated. While on the other hand some of the essential staff of the Philippine emb(–foul word(s) removed–)y will remain in Libya. As reported by Danny Buenafe of ABS-CBN Europe and Middle East News Bureau chief.

Repatriation of OFW’s from Libya is still ongoing and is expected to continue to help the Filipinos evacuate safely. According to DFA, 10 airplanes were chartered from Dubai to bring there the Filipino evacuees. From Dubai, they are going to take the commercial flights going back to the Philippines.