The Philippines Foreign Ministry has apologised to Malta after a Filipino worker who was evacuated from Libya disappeared after checking in his luggage at Malta airport.

Just under 800 Filipino workers arrived in Malta on Friday on a ship chartered by their country's government in an operation costing $1.8 million. They were flown out on two Philippines Airlines planes on Friday night.

But one evacuee, identified by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) as Rodrigo Andres did not board his plane. He disappeared after checking in his luggage at Malta International Airport.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said he was disappointed over the incident involving Mr Andres. 

“We are of course disappointed that one of our repatriates had other designs. He is now undocumented in Malta, and yes, I will have to apologize to my friend, the (Maltese) foreign minister,” Del Rosario said in reply to the query whether the government had to apologize to Malta over the incident.

The Philippines government subsequently sent a note verbal to the Maltese government.

Del Rosario said that President Aquino had intended the repatriation to be shouldered by the Philippine government and that it be a full return to Manila. He said the Maltese government extended the necessary courtesy to the effort.

The Philippine media said the sea evacuation was a one-time deal, as Libya’s borders with Tunisia and Egypt have reopened, making it possible for the more than 10,000 Filipino migrant workers remaining in Libya to use these as exits when they decide to return home.

However most of the Filipino workers have decided they have better chances of surviving in Libya, despite the turmoil, than in the Philippines, where they face unemployment. 

A Filipino construction worker was abducted and then beheaded by unknown persons in Benghazi in the first few days of violence there, and a Filipino female nurse was later abducted and gang-raped in Tripoli.

The beheading triggered the Philippine government’s decision to try and repatriate all 13,000 Filipinos in Libya.