The two Filipino seafarers who survived the serious injuries they sustained when a Houthi missile struck the M/V True Confidence on 6 March have returned home and are now reunited with their families.

The two arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 6:45 a.m. yesterday on a chartered medical evacuation flight from Djibouti, the Department of Migrant Workers said in an advisory.

Eleven of their fellow Filipino crew members were flown back into the Philippines on 12 March, including one who sustained slight injuries.

DMW Officer-In-Charge, Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac, had said in an earlier interview that one of the seafarers suffered severe burns and needed to have his leg amputated, while the other had a serious leg injury.

Doctors who treated the two in a Djibouti hospital in East Africa declared them “fit to travel.” 

The two were met by a medical team upon their arrival at the NAIA and were transported to a hospital to recuperate. “They were reunited with their families at the hospital,” the DWM  said in the advisory.

Representatives of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration were at the airport to check on the welfare of the injured seafarers.

“OWWA, together with other agencies concerned, ensured the safe travel of the injured seafarers, and their transfer to a hospital here in the Philippines,” the OWWA said in a Facebook post, adding that it is preparing benefit packages for the seafarers and their families. 

Iran-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen struck the M/V True Confidence with an anti-ship missile while it was navigating the Gulf of Aden on 6 March on its way from China to Jeddah and Aqaba, carrying a cargo of steel and trucks.

Two Filipino seamen and a Vietnamese on the ship were killed in the attack. The retrieval of the remains of the two Filipino seafarers continues, according to the DMW.

DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia said the ship had already been recovered from the Gulf of Aden and was on its way to a still undisclosed safe place where it could be salvaged. 

“Our government’s priority is to retrieve the remains of our compatriots),” Olalia said. “All the offices involved, including the ship owner and the manning agency, are currently doing everything for the process of retrieving the bodies of our two seafarers,” he added.