A ship that can carry up to 1,000 passengers is being readied to evacuate Filipinos from Libya, according to Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Albert del Rosario as the Philippine government scampers to repatriate its citizens from the strife-torn country, GMA news online reports.

In a report on "24 Oras" on Wednesday, Del Rosario said the ship, will leave Malta and sail to Benghazi, Sirte and Misrata in Libya before coming back.

"We hope that we can get close to a thousand on that ship, because those ships are expensive," Del Rosario said.

There are more or less 13,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Libya, according to the Foreign Office of the Philippines.

The government has been urging Filipinos to return from Libya due to the security situation there. On Tuesday, a new batch of Filipino workers from the troubled African nation arrived home, with some of them claiming they were harassed by men who were wearing police uniforms.

Meanwhile, the "24 Oras" report said some Filipinos in Libya who have expressed interest in returning home are growing impatient about the delay in their repatriation, and also more worried about the worsening security situation there.

The Philippine Embassy in Libya has already started relocating its non-core staff to Tunisia.

"Due to the increasing violence and lawlessness in Tripoli, all non-core staff of the Philippine Embassy there are being relocated to Tunisia. Staff dependents were repatriated last week," it said.

Last 20 July, the Philippine government raised the alert level in Libya to "4," citing the "extremely unstable" situation there.

"Under Alert Level 4, the Philippine government undertakes evacuation of about 13,000 Filipino nationals there as soon as possible while no Filipino national will be allowed to travel to Libya," the DFA said.