MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 23, 2013) – Three distressed Filipino seafarers, who were stranded at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi in Kenya since last month, have returned to the Philippines, officials said.
Officials said the Filipinos – Edgar Tolentino (boson), Boyeto Banila (oiler) and Christopher Sembrano (cook) – were safely repatriated through the efforts of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the seafarers’ Philippine recruitment agency, Stella Maris.
The three seafarers worked aboard the cargo ship MV Asahi.
According to Philippine Consul Donna Gatmaytan, the Philippine Embassy in Nairobi received a distress call from the trio who asked for help since they were stranded at the airport after their tickets from Nairobi to Manila via Doha were cancelled by their employer.
Gatmaytan said the Filipinos told the Embassy their work contracts with the ship had already ended and they were on their way back to Manila from the Congo where their ship was docked. They took the plane in Congo to Nairobi, from where they were supposed to take the connecting flight to Doha. When they reached Nairobi, however, they were informed that their tickets were cancelled by their employer, leaving them helpless at the airport and unable to proceed to Manila.
Embassy personnel immediately took the seafarers under their care and custody. Expenses for food and basic needs pending repatriation were charged against the Assistance-to-Nationals Fund managed by the DFA.
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