March 10 ------ Well-paying jobs have been preventing some Filipinos in Ukraine from leaving the war-stricken country, a foreign affairs official said Wednesday, March 9. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola disclosed that there are still more than 100 Filipinos in Ukraine while 199 nationals have been taken out of the country who are either repatriated in the Philippines or in safe borders.
“We have a little over a hundred land-based Filipinos na ayaw pa talagang umuwi but we are pleading them, calling them or asking them na umuwi na sila,” Arriola said. The undersecretary disclosed that one of the reasons behind the overseas Filipinos’ decision to stay in the foreign land amid the fighting, is their well-paying jobs. They cannot earn high wages even if they find employment in similar work in the Philippines. “Some of them, yung mga employers nila ay continue giving salaries para bantayan lang yung bahay and they feel that they won’t be able to get that pay ‘pag nandito sa Pilipinas,” Arriola said. “We understand that but we’d like to tell them that over two million na yung refugees na tumawid, they should exercise their sound judgment,” Arriola added.
Aside from the jobs, some women cannot leave their husbands behind, she said.
The foreign affairs official also admitted that one of their biggest challenges they are facing now is getting Filipino seafarers, who have been stranded in the Black Sea, out of danger. “Kami, medyo, problemado tayo dito sa sea-based workers. POEA (Philippine Overseas Employment Administration) is closely monitoring how many Filipinos are stranded sa kanilang vessels,” Arriola said.
She added that they cannot leave their vessels due to the “heavy fighting” and they can only hunker down and take cover amid the intense firing. She assured that Philippine government agencies continue to work together in coordination with Philippine embassies and consulates in the embattled country and its nearby territories to get more Filipinos out of danger.
Source: mb.com.ph
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