MANILA: The remaining 11 of the 17 rescued Filipino seafarers from the MV Magic Seas that was recently attacked by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea are set to return to the Philippines on Saturday (July 12) evening, according to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).
In a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday, DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia said the flight of the remaining 11 seafarers to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport will be at 11pm.
“There are 11 of them. They will be the ones who will make up the 17 who came from the MV Magic Seas, the first ship where everyone was safe and we rescued them,” Olalia said.
It was on Friday when the first six Filipino crew members of the ill-fated MV Magic Seas returned to the Philippines.
According to Olalia, the government will also provide assistance to the arriving Filipino seafarers in terms of psychosocial services and financial aid.
“First of all, they have gone through very tragic and traumatic experiences. That’s why it’s necessary that they have psycho-social services when they arrive.,” the DMW undersecretary said in the Saturday news forum.
Olalia said that the agency will conduct a medical investigation to identify whether the seafarers need to be referred to medical facilities.
“Apart from that, there is also financial assistance and various other assistance from all relevant government agencies,” he added.
Meanwhile, the government’s search and rescue operations continue for the remaining 13 still unaccounted crew members aboard the sunken MV Eternity C in Yemen.
Earlier, the DMW announced that Houthi rebels aboard small boats attacked two ships — MV Magic Seas and MV Eternity C — manned by Filipino seafarers sailing through the Red Sea near Yemen.
The attacks were the latest to be carried out by the Houthi rebels, who had been targeting vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, since the conflict between Israel and Hamas started to break out in 2023. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
