POLAND. Displaced persons carry belongings as they walk to a border crossing in Medyka, Poland, Thursday, March 3, 2022. More than 1 million people have fled Ukraine following Russia's invasion in the swiftest refugee exodus in this century, the United Nations said Thursday. (AP)
By THIRD ANNE PERALTA-MALONZO, SunStar
OVER a hundred Filipinos are still inside Ukraine, while 200 Pinoy seafarers have been stranded in the Black Sea amid the Ukraine-Russia conflict, an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Friday, March 4, 2022.
DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said 31 land-based Filipinos in Ukraine, including 21 seafarers, have already made their way out of Ukraine and awaiting their flight to the Philippines in Romania.
She said there were also 15 Filipinos from Ukraine in Hungary and nine in Austria.
Arriola said 116 Filipinos are still in Ukraine, including those who are married to Ukraine nationals and refused to evacuate. Forty-five of them were in Kyiv, the country’s capital.
She said the DFA has accounted a total of 209 Filipinos in Ukraine.
She said some of the Filipinos refused to leave due to their work in humanitarian and security organizations, which the country needed the most now.
"We're giving them care packages and financial assistance but we’re really asking them to please leave because the problem is the fighting is getting to be more intense," said Ariolla.
“And what we're afraid of is if the train stops operating, there's no other way to get to Lviv. But we understand some can’t leave because they have their families there,” she added.
She said according to the record of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, around 200 Filipino seamen were stranded in the Black Sea, which lies in the northern portion of Ukraine and northeast of Russia, and in several ports in Ukraine.
Arriola said ships are more careful in sailing after two cargo vessels were hit by explosions caused by the Russian invasion.
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“If there’s really heavy fire, the only thing they can do is hunker down and take cover because the one who might extract them might get killed or if they leave the ships they might also get hurt,” she said.
The DFA earlier said 19 Filipinos from Ukraine have already arrived in the country since February when the conflict began.
