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Filipinos ordered to `pack up and run'

Rafael Apolinario holds a picture of his mother Rosalie as he waits at the overseas worker and welfare administration department in Manila, the Philippines, yesterday. Free phone calls are being offered to relatives of the estimated 30,000 Filipino workers in Lebanon who have been stranded by the fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah militia forces. PHOTO: AFP

The Philippines yesterday ordered Filipinos working in southern Lebanon to "pack up and run," while Australia was investigating reports that some of its citizens had been caught up in the fighting in the troubled Middle Eastern nation.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs said it was checking reports that Australians in the southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun may have been injured by Israeli air strikes overnight, the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) reported, as the country continued to evacuate citizens from Lebanon.

Philippine officials told Filipino workers in southern Lebanon to evacuate because of an impending attack by Israeli forces, a government spokesman said.

"Pack up and run," said Gilbert Asuque, spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs. "All Filipinos, get out of there and go to the embassy or the relocation sites. This is forced evacuation."

"We don't want our Filipinos to be caught in the crossfire," he added.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said there could be up to 2,000 Filipinos in southern Lebanon, which came under heavy Israeli fire in the early hours of yesterday.

Conejos said Filipinos could take shelter in the embassy in Beirut, or in two Roman Catholic churches in the Lebanese capital, where several Thais have sought refuge.

He said about 300 Filipino workers who sheltered in one of the churches arrived in Damascus by bus early on Friday and were waiting for a flight back to the Philippines. An earlier charter flight developed technical trouble and a new plane had to be organized, he said.

There are about 30,000 Filipino workers in Lebanon, most of them domestic helpers.

Asuque said the Philippine labor attache in Lebanon has been told to ask employers to let their Filipino helpers leave.

Media reports in Manila said some employers have refused to release their Filipino maids because they have been paid in advance, other workers have been taken by their employers to safety but are out of contact, while some have been abandoned.

Conejos said some employers were concerned they would be held responsible for the safety of their domestic helpers and so only wanted to release them into the custody of embassy officials.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday made a "special appeal to all combatant forces" in Lebanon to spare Filipino workers. She said her government was eager to achieve a "zero-casualty goal" in the evacuation.

Australia's ambassador to Lebanon, Lyndall Sachs, said the government holds "grave concerns" for about 400 Australian families living in southern Lebanon, and the foreign affairs department has urged them to flee the area if it is safe to do so.

Around 800 Australians were pulled from Lebanon on Friday, bringing the total number of evacuees so far to 1,600, the ABC reported yesterday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has said the government expects to move up to 6,000 citizens out of Lebanon on board six chartered vessels by late today.

About 25,000 dual Australian-Lebanese citizens are believed to be living in Lebanon.

More than 10,000 people, carrying coffins and chanting "No war," shrugged off the rain in downtown Sydney yesterday to protest against Israel's attacks on Lebanon.

Police estimated turnout at about 10,000 people -- including former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib and the spiritual leader of Australia's Muslim community, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali -- while organizers put the number at closer to 20,000.

Parents carried Australian and Lebanese flags as their children wore T-shirts with slogans such as "Stop killing the babies."
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