DFA dusts off contingency for Mideast OFWs

By Estrella Torres

Reporter

THE Philippines is once again trying to update plans on how to protect the estimated 1.8 million Filipinos in the Middle East because of war jitters arising from the capture by Iran of 15 British navy sailors and its hostile response to mounting pressure from the international community to abandon its nuclear military program. Foreign Affairs undersecretary for migrant workers affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. told journalists, “My task is to make sure that these [individual country] plans are updated to withstand a new crisis that may arise. [The new plan] has to be coordinated because when we’re talking of a regional threat, the contingency plans have to be regionally coordinated with each other.”   Iran is facing worldwide sanctions for its refusal to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution on March 24 imposing sanctions on Tehran. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the new UN sanctions, saying it is illegal to impose sanctions on a sovereign nation. Through the state-owned Iranian News Agency, he averred his country’s nuclear activities were “legal and based on the country’s legal and inalienable rights” and that the program would “continue without hesitation.” The British government plans to impose additional sanctions on Iran following the kidnapping of the 15 British sailors. The Iranian government argued that the British sailors were caught in Iranian waters. Conejos said other governments have also been attending to their respective contingency plans for their nationals in response to Iran’s growing hostilities. Of the 1.8 million Filipinos in the Middle East, almost one million are in Saudi Arabia.

 

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