Around 700 Filipinos in Lebanon are waiting to be repatriated, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Sunday.

In an interview with dzBB, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said: ''Filipinos are not that interested in fleeing. That is why our embassy is strongly appealing to them.”

“A maximum of 1,000 Filipinos expressed that they wanted to be repatriated or wanted to go home. Three hundred have already gone home. There are 700 that are waiting to be repatriated,” he added.

De Vega said no Filipinos are residing in the border of Lebanon with Israel but less than 100 are living in the towns in South Lebanon.

“The Filipinos in Beirut think they are safe because the missile attacks do not reach them. However, we don’t want them to be there when the tensions escalate,” he said.

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said that 15 OFWs and three children were repatriated on Saturday.

The Philippine Embassy in Lebanon earlier urged Filipinos to leave while the airport remained open.

It also advised those who could not leave to evacuate to safer areas outside of Beirut, South Lebanon, and Bekaa Valley.

Last month, tensions between Lebanon and Israel worsened after an Israeli strike killed a senior commander in Beirut. Jaspearl Tan/DMS