(AP) Thousands of foreign workers are being evacuated from Libya's second-largest city, as Europe, the United States and the United Nations donate more than $30 million to help a chaotic exodus of almost 200,000 who have fled the North African nation.
Tens of thousands more were massing at the borders just inside Libya, perched in camps or roughing it outside while awaiting evacuation, safe passage or asylum. Those who did so braved cold weather, lack of food and water, and other dangers. Thousands more were frozen in place, fearful of the intense fighting.
President Barack Obama announced Thursday he has approved the use of U.S. military aircraft and civilian flights to get people out. "The violence must stop. Moammar Gadhafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave," Obama said.
Immigration officials began evacuating 5,500 foreign workers Thursday from the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi, now held by rebels opposed to Gadhafi's regime.
The European Union said it is donating euro10 million ($14 million) to help Tunisia evacuate tens of thousands of refugees who have been pouring across the border as they flee Libya's escalating civil war. A roughly equal number is crossing from Libya into Egypt.
The U.S. provided $10 million, the U.N. $5 million, and European Commission is giving euro3 million ($4.1 million) to help the evacuations. Switzerland also pitched in a half-million francs.
International Organization for Migration officials said almost 200,000 have now crossed from Libya into Tunisia, Egypt and Niger. It said nine flights provided by Britain and the U.N. refugee agency based in Geneva were flying nearly 1,700 people from Djerba, Tunisia, to Cairo, on Thursday.
Those efforts will help bring another 2,250 stranded Egyptians home over the next five days as France lends two planes to the effort.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after a conference call Thursday with Mideast, African, European, U.N. and migration officials that much more help was getting to the refugees in the last 24 hours. He said he would soon name a special envoy to handle the crisis.
However, the U.N. says a ship carrying more than 1,000 metric tons of food aid bound for Libya's opposition stronghold of Benghazi has turned back without unloading because of security fears. The World Food Program appealed for a safe humanitarian corridor to make sure all aid gets to those in need.
The Rome-based agency said the ship bringing in wheat at the request of the Red Crescent in eastern Libya returned to Malta on Thursday because bombings had been reported outside Benghazi's port. Benghazi is held by Libya's opposition.
WFP chief Josette Sheeran said the agency is preparing contingency plans in case needs grow inside Libya. The WFP is already providing food aid to people who have crossed into Tunisia and Egypt.
Relief agencies based in Geneva provided a grim account of the situation in Libya and along its borders.
At Benghazi's port and surrounding warehouses, the first to be airlifted out were about 200 women, children and medical patients. Evacuees-in-waiting were mostly from Bangladesh, India and Sudan, and a few from Syria and Ghana.
Most were too afraid of being shot in the fighting, or didn't know there was help waiting at the Egyptian border. And many, particularly those from sub-Saharan African, are undocumented, making a border crossing more difficult. Libyan port authorities, out from under Gadhafi's yoke, also were trying to help.
Libyan Red Crescent aides and international immigration officials were escorting small groups by road to the Egyptian border at Salum. About 3,000 people had reached there from inside Libya, and were waiting until ships could be found to take them to Alexandria in Egypt.
But about 3,000 Bangladeshis and 1,000 northern Sudanese were trapped in a no-man's land between Libya and Egypt, where emergency workers were trying to bring them food, water and medicine.
Countless people were stuck near the Egyptian, Tunisian, and Niger borders, lacking food or shelter in freezing weather. Others who had managed to escape Libya were similarly stranded without food or proper gear in Turkey, Malta and Greece.
An International Organization for Migration official in Geneva said one Nigerian migrant worker reported that 6,000-10,000 other foreigner laborers, families and pregnant women were trapped in Al Khums, a town on the Mediterranean coast of Libya. He said the group included West Africans, Chinese and Filipinos.
The officials said food supplies were low, illness was spreading and fear of reprisals against foreigners were keeping them indoors.
Filipinos, Vietnamese, Sri Lankans, Nepalese and many other Africans were stranded in large numbers in Sirt, Tripoli, Wazem and Misrata, Libya. Many are without documents and passports, which were taken by their employers.
0 comments:
Post a Comment