Aside from the 21 rescued seafarers in Chornomorsk in southwestern Ukraine, there are around 200 Filipino seafarers who are stranded in various ports in Ukraine near the Black Sea, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Philippine Ambassador to Hungary Frank Cimafranca said they have identified at least seven ships with Filipino crew on board which were docked or near the Ukrainian ports when Russia invaded Ukraine last week. These are in the ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny, Mykolayiv and Nika-Tera.
DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said the latest figure from the POEA is that there are 200 Filipino seafarers on those ships, based on data given to them by the manning agencies of the seamen.
“Mas nagri-reach out ang mga families, more than the seafarers sa min,” Arriola said during the virtual downhill meeting at OFW Help Facebook Page of the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Thursday.
Since there is no Philippine embassy in Ukraine, the embassy nearest the ports in southwestern Ukraine is Hungary and Moldova which are under consular jurisdiction of Ambassador Cimafranca.
However, since Russia started military offensives to key cities in Ukraine, the land borders with Hungary and Moldova have been closed and travel towards those border crossings has also become too dangerous.
He narrated that just early this week, the Philippine honorary consul in Moldova made a daring attempt to rescue the seafarers of MV S-Breeze from Chornomorsk. The rescue mission resulted in the arrest of the driver that Honorary Consul Victor Gaina had instructed to fetch the Filipinos. Later, the driver was released upon their diplomatic intervention.
“As long as the vessels are not under attack and lives are not imminent danger, it’s safer to just stay inside the vessels. Commercial ships will not intentionally targetted,” Cimafranca said.
“But if there are hardened shelters, better relocate there because sometimes there may be accidental firings. If fighting subsides or if there is a humanitarian corridor safe evacuation of civilians, then that’s the only time they can evacuate,” the ambassador advised.
However, he said, it is difficult for Filipinos to abandon their ship especially if the ship is all-Filipino crew including their captain.
“The captain should never abandon his ship. So this (evacuation) has to be properly coordinated with the manning agencies, and to the ship owners,” the ambassador explained.