Three distressed Filipino seafarers who were stranded at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi, Kenya after their flight tickets were cancelled by their employer have been safely repatriated, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Seafarers Edgar Tolentino (boson), Boyeto Banila (oiler), and Christopher Sembrano (cook) of cargo ship MV Asahi were able to return to the Philippines on April 21 "through the combined efforts of the DFA, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the seafarers’ Philippine recruitment agency, Stella Maris."
According to Philippine Consul Donna Feliciano-Gatmaytan, the Philippine Embassy in Nairobi received a distress call from the three who asked the help of the Embassy since they were stranded at the airport after their tickets from Nairobi to Manila via Doha were cancelled by their employer.
The seafarers said their work contracts with the ship had 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 unable to proceed to Manila.
Embassy personnel then 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.