Many Bangladeshis living in Tripoli are waiting to be evacuated from the troubled Libyan capital as the International Organisation for Migration starts evacuating foreigners by ship.
The first IOM-chartered ship evacuated 263 migrants Thursday night, but there were no Bangladeshis on it. The second ship, scheduled to arrive at Tripoli Port anytime today, will evacuate around 1,000 by late Sunday or early Monday.
A group of Bangladeshis along with other nationalities are expected to be evacuated by the second ship from Tripoli, where civilians are apparently confined to houses amid heavy fighting between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists.
"We do not exactly know the number of the Bangladeshis there. We shall evacuate those who arrive at the harbour," Jean Philippe Chauzy, spokesperson of the IOM in Geneva, told The Daily Star over phone yesterday evening.
The Daily Star failed to contact the Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli due to disruption in the telephone network. Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan said he too failed to get in touch with the mission there.
A Bangladeshi student Muhammad Shahabuddin told BBC Bangla Service if the situation does not improve, there could be food crisis in Tripoli as most shops are closed and they were not able to go outside for security reasons.
"Movement is extremely slow as well as dangerous. Crossing checkpoints manned by different groups with different demands is very challenging," says IOM Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Pasquale Lupoli. "And then there are snipers."
The Organisation remains deeply concerned that migrants who want and need evacuation assistance may not be able to get it because they cannot get to the port, says a press statement posted on the IOM website.
The migrants, en route to Benghazi, will be temporarily accommodated at a transit centre before being taken by IOM to the Egyptian border and eventually assisted to return to their home countries.
Source : The Daily Star
