DFA: No Alert Level 4 in Lebanon as of yet

THE government is not raising the alert level in Lebanon anytime soon, but its embassy in Beirut continues to operate as if mass repatriation is about to be undertaken, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Saturday.

At the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City, DFA Undersecretary for Migration Eduardo Jose de Vega said no Filipino has been hurt so far in the series of Israeli strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and that most "are still adamant" about staying in the country.

"Since hostilities in Israel and Gaza began in October, we already were calling on them to go home voluntarily. So far, only around 500 returned," he said.

For Filipinos unable to leave because their employers refuse to release their passports, de Vega urged them to seek immediate assistance from the Philippine Embassy in Beirut.

"This is a phenomenon that happens not just in Lebanon but everywhere. What we can do if they don't have a passport, we can always issue travel documents for them to go home," he said.

"It will be complicated to get the exit clearance if the employer refuses to release the passport, but we can always appeal," he said, adding that they could use government funds to pay for penalties.

Alert Level 4 or mandatory evacuation is only declared in case of a large-scale internal conflict or if the host country has suffered a full-blown external attack.

On top of this, Foreign Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Middle East Office Marlo Miranda said the department is also considering the Filipinos opposed to the elevation of alert level.

"There's another camp of OFWs who don't want the Alert Level 4 to be raised because that would eventually mean that they can no longer return to Lebanon if they get repatriated," Miranda said.

"The lesser of two evils would be to operate as if we were on Alert Level 4 while still under Alert Level 3."

De Vega noted that of the estimated 11,000 Filipinos in Lebanon, about 90 percent are against mandatory repatriation.

Meanwhile, he updated the number of Filipinos based in southern Lebanon from 196 to 272 but said none of them are in the border or areas being targeted by Israel.

Of the estimated 1,000 waiting to return home, 127 will join four repatriation flights scheduled from October 11 to 28, de Vega said.

In the same forum, he reiterated the Philippines' call on concerned parties to work toward the de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

"Under the principles of international humanitarian law, we don't want innocent civilians hurt. The region has to be stable, and also because there are over 2 million Filipinos in the region," he said.

Some migrant domestic workers in Lebanon have been locked in homes while their employers flee from Israel's airstrikes, the United Nations said Friday.

The UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said foreign domestic staff were increasingly being abandoned by Lebanese families to face heightened danger in the conflict.

The IOM raised the plight of Lebanon's 170,000 migrant workers, many of whom are women from countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

"We are receiving increasing reports of migrant domestic workers being abandoned by their Lebanese employers, either left on the streets or in their homes as their employers flee," said Mathieu Luciano, the IOM's head of office in Lebanon.

"They face very limited shelter options," he told a press briefing in Geneva via video from Beirut, adding that on Thursday he visited a shelter in the capital housing 64 Sudanese families "who have nowhere else to go."

He said the IOM was receiving increasing requests from migrants seeking help to go home. Many countries have also sought the agency's help to evacuate citizens.

However, "this would require significant funding — which we currently do not have," he added.

Nearly a year after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Israel announced it was shifting its focus to securing its northern border with Lebanon.

Israel's attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people since September 23, according to the Lebanese health ministry, while hundreds of thousands have fled their homes in a country already mired in economic crisis.

The situation for Lebanon's migrant workers is precarious, as their legal status is often tied to their employer under the "kafala" sponsorship system governing foreign labor.

Rights groups say the system allows for abuses, including the withholding of wages and the confiscation of official documents — which provide workers their only lifeline out of the country.

"We've seen in the south that the employers would leave but then would either leave the domestic workers on the streets, wouldn't relocate with them — or actually even worse, lock the domestic worker in, to make sure that the house is kept while they are seeking safety somewhere else," he said.

Luciano said those left on the street would struggle to relocate or get to safety, while many cannot speak Arabic.

"Many are undocumented; they don't have papers. As a result, they are pretty reluctant to seek humanitarian assistance because they fear they will be arrested and may be deported," he said.

Luciano noted there were "huge issues around mental health" among migrant domestic staff working in Lebanon.