AFP: World scrambles to evacuate thousands from Libya

World scrambles to evacuate thousands from Libya

By Matthew Xuereb (AFP) – 55 minutes ago

VALLETTA — Thousands of foreign workers were evacuated from Libya by air, land and sea in dramatic scenes on Saturday as fears of a civil war in the oil-rich North African state triggered a desperate exodus.

British military planes evacuated 150 people from camps in the Libyan desert in one rescue mission, while a British warship and a Chinese-chartered ferry docked in the Mediterranean island of Malta loaded with 2,500 evacuees.

"It was very scary, the scariest experience of my life," George Camilleri, a Maltese national who fled violence in the now rebel-held eastern Libyan port of Benghazi, told AFP as he stepped off the ferry back onto his homeland.

Camilleri said he witnessed "fierce fighting" in the streets of Benghazi.

A Tunisian official told AFP meanwhile that more 38,000 people had fled across Tunisia's main Ras Jedir border since the start of the exodus a week ago.

The number included 18,000 Tunisians, 15,000 Egyptians, 2,500 Libyans and 2,500 Chinese, said Colonel Malek Mihoub of the Civil Protection authority.

Many are migrant workers who are part of a vast multinational workforce including domestic helpers, builders and oil workers on the move to escape the violence.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said about 15,000 Egyptians were stranded at the Ras Jedir border awaiting evacuation help.

It appealed for millions of euros (dollars) in emergency international aid.

Hundreds of foreigners including Egyptians, Iraqis and Syrians have also fled from Libya into Algeria through the Sahara Desert.

Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Nigeria, the Philippines and South Korea are among the countries that have or had large communities in Libya -- drawn by an oil boom that has brought billions of euros (dollars) in investments.

In Bangladesh, hundreds of angry relatives of workers stranded in Libya blocked a key highway northeast of the capital Dhaka, accusing the government of dragging its heels in rescuing the estimated 60,000 Bangladeshis there.

The impoverished South Asian country has said it is seeking to ensure the safety of its citizens, most of them low-paid contract workers in the construction industry, but it has no immediate plans to bring them home.

Many evacuations have had to be carried out in terrible weather conditions.

Britain's HMS Cumberland frigate left Benghazi on Thursday carrying 207 passengers but only arrived on Saturday as it was forced to travel at a reduced speed because of the high waves in the Mediterranean.

Richard Weeks, a 64-year-old British manager on the ship, told how he was robbed during the unrest.

"They were armed with knives and knew they could take what they wanted, so it was better to let them get on with it," he said.

The British defence ministry quoted him as saying it was "terrifying".

A ferry that docked in Malta later Saturday carried 2,216 Chinese nationals also from Benghazi, who will remain on board until planes come to pick them up.

Nearly 3,000 Chinese also landed on the Greek island of Crete on Saturday, as China said 16,000 of its 33,000 citizens have been evacuated so far.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China said it would send 15 aircraft a day for the next two weeks to speed up the evacuations of Chinese citizens.

Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler, said one of its warships with around 245 evacuees from the Libyan port of Misrata was to arrive in Sicily on Sunday.

Some 500 people from 25 countries also boarded two Turkish military vessels in Libya, together with about 1,200 Turks, officials in Ankara said.

India said two specially chartered planes had left for Tripoli to begin the evacuation of some 18,000 Indians in the strife-torn country.

And a ship carrying 148 Brazilian evacuees departed from Benghazi bound for the Greek port of Piraeus near Athens.

Meanwhile the first Filipinos out of 26,000 in Libya arrived in Manila.

A US-chartered ferry carrying hundreds of people from Tripoli including American diplomats docked in Malta on Friday after braving 20-foot (six-metre) waves, with at least two evacuees taken away on stretchers by paramedics.

A privately chartered ferry from Libya with hundreds of evacuees on board also arrived in Malta on Friday, along with two German warships set to take away German citizens airlifted out of Libya earlier this week.

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