Tuesday, August 08, 2006

7 OFWs held by Lebanese authorities

INQ7 BREAKING NEWS - NATION

July 29, 2006
Updated 13:55:32 (Mla time)
Veronica Uy
INQ7.net GMA7

(UPDATE) THE Lebanese government has stopped seven overseas Filipino workers from leaving after their Lebanese employers complained of missing valuables, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Special Concerns Rafael Seguis said Saturday.

In a long-distance interview from Syria, Seguis said 29 of 307 OFWs scheduled to leave Lebanon for Damascus, Syria, Friday afternoon (Middle East time) were held at the immigration office.

Subsequently, seven of them were told to return to Beirut.

“It wasn't a problem with the Syrian immigration, it was problem at the Lebanese side,” Seguia said.

Seguis said the OFWs got to the Lebanon-Syria border at around 2 p.m. Friday and were released about 10 hours later, or around midnight (5 a.m. Saturday, Philippine time).

“Everyone was delayed because the 29 were not in one bus, they were distributed in the six buses, and their instructions were they should be together. With the luggage and all, they were only able to pull out from the border around midnight,” he added.

GMA Network’s dzBB said the 300 other OFWs were at a relocation center some 80 kilometers from Damascus to await eventual repatriation.

http://services.inq7.net/express/06/07/29/html_output/xmlhtml/20060729-12443-xml.html

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