21 Seamen Safe After Oil Tanker Explodes in Nigeria

Posted by Oil Tycoon

January 14, 2008

MANILA, Philippines — Barely a month after an oil tanker with Filipino seafarers exploded in Port Harcourt, Nigeria last December, another oil tanker with 21 Filipino seafarers exploded in the same place Sunday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said all 21 are safe. He said the Philippine embassy in Nigeria was arranging the repatriation of the seamen.

“We are sending consular team of two members from Abuja to Port Harcourt,” he said.

Conejos said he was coordinating with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration on means on tightening the implementation of the deployment ban to the oil-rich African country.

“We should have, among other things, better dissemination of the ban because some agencies claim they do not know about the ban,” he said.

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