BANGKOK, June 19. /TASS/. The Philippines and Russia have agreed to release 24 citizens of the Asian country who have been detained in Irkutsk on suspicion of violating immigration laws, Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said following a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN summit in Kazan.

According to Marcos, the Filipinos were detained in 2025 upon arrival to Russia after unidentified recruiters had supposedly facilitated their entry. "He (Putin - TASS) said, We will find a way. And now the 24 Filipinos will be released. They will be ready for deportation tomorrow <…> so those Filipinos will go back to the Philippines and back with their families," ABS-CBN News television quoted him as saying.

The Philippine president noted that Russia had given the Filipinos an option to legally work in the country but they chose to come back to their homeland. According to the Asian country’s Department of Foreign Affairs, there are some 15,000 Filipino nationals in Russia.