MANILA, Philippines — Efforts to repatriate Filipino migrant workers caught in the middle of a revolutionary wave of anti-government unrest that swept the Middle East and West Africa occupied much of the Department of Foreign Affairs' (DFA) attention last year.

What began in Tunisia on December of 2010 came to head a month later as protest demonstrations and marches were met by a violent response from authorities.

Also on that first month of 2011, thousands of Egyptian protesters demanding the ouster of Egypt President Hosni Mubarak clashed with police.

The DFA kept a close watch on developments in the Middle East, concerned about the safety of tens of thousands of Filipinos working and living in the region.

In Egypt alone, there are almost 7,000 Filipinos.

Anticipating the unrest to escalate, the DFA, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) allotted P50 million as a standby emergency fund.

By February the unrest spread, and the government began to make arrangements for Filipinos in Egypt who wanted to come home.

In less than a week, the DFA was able to facilitate the repatriation of nearly 100 Filipinos from Cairo.

But after the revolution in Tunisia, it was just a matter of time before anti-government protests swept through the Arab region that came to be known as the "Arab Spring."

In March, it reached Bahrain's capital city Manama, prompting the DFA to raise alert level 2 there, cautioning Filipinos to avoid large crowds and areas of protest, and encouraging them to leave the country.

In Libya, the government of Moammar Khadafy struggled to suppress a growing uprising.

And in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest nation, years of frustration were coming to head.

Around 31,000 Filipinos were working in Bahrain, 1,400 in Yemen and around 26,000 in Libya.

As the situation in Libya continued to deteriorate, the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli raised alert level 3, calling for Filipinos to leave.

Filipino workers from the Libyan city of Benghazi were among the first to cross the border to Egypt.

Newly appointed Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario flew to Djerba, the Tunisian capital closest to the Libyan border, to supervise the evacuation.

By that time, almost 1,500 Filipinos had left Libya, and a quarter of them had flown to the Philippines.

To quicken the pace of the repatriation, the DFA chartered a 1,725-passenger ship transport Filipinos who were waiting in Benghazi.

Only 635 Filipinos left on the MV Ionian Queen on its first trip from Benghazi to the Greek island of Crete. The ship returned to Benghazi to fetch 1,038 more Filipinos.

The DFA had expected the Ionian Queen to be full of Filipinos.

It said several Filipino nurses in Libya were prevented from leaving because “their contracts stipulated that they are going to serve in emergency situations."

Less than 2,000 Filipinos chose to remain in Libya, almost 1,600 of them nurses with dependents mostly in Tripoli.

The DFA and the Department of Labor and Employment later declared they have achieved their mission of repatriating Filipinos from the besieged cities of Tripoli and Benghazi despite limited resources and the volatile condition.

At least 46 percent of the estimated 26,000 Filipinos in Libya have been repatriated by the Philippine government since February 24 when the conflict escalated.

The government also spent more than P525 million in bringing home Pinoys in Egypt and Libya.

The repatriation program ended in March when only 90 Filipinos in Libya asked to be flown home.

In April, crisis alert level 2 was raised in Syria. Level 3 was hoisted in Yemen in May.

When rebels seized parts of Tripoli in August, the DFA raised alert level 4 in Libya.

A total of 10,087 Filipinos were flown home from Libya, 282 from Yemen, 282 from Syria and 93 from Egypt.

Last Dec. 20, the DFA lowered the alert level in Libya to 2, allowing the redeployment of returning OFWs to Libya.

As 2011 drew to a close, the alert level in Syria was raised from 3 to 4 because of the escalating violence in that country.

(To be concluded on Wednesday)