PASAY CITY -- The Department of Foreign Affairs welcomed another 31 Filipino evacuees from Afghanistan who arrived around 1500H yesterday at NAIA Terminal 1. The evacuees joined the DFA chartered flight out of Doha.

The Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA), in coordination with the Philippine Embassies in Pakistan and Qatar, assisted in repatriating the Filipinos who are mostly employees of various security firms based in Kabul. The group was initially flown to Islamabad before taking their flight from Doha to Manila.

To date, 138 out of the 188 Filipinos evacuated out of Afghanistan have returned to the Philippines. There are currently 23 Filipinos who remain in Afghanistan.

The Philippine Embassy in Pakistan, which has concurrent jurisdiction over Afghanistan, recorded 211 Filipinos in the country prior to the start of evacuations. Afghanistan was placed on Alert Level 4, which requires mandatory repatriation of Filipinos, due to the armed conflict in the country. (DFA)