Dhaka, March 2 (IANS) Over 15,000 Bangladeshis are stranded in Libyan capital Tripoli, while the government has received distress messages from 45,000 more working in other parts of the North African nation, media reports said Wednesday.
‘They are exhausted and in urgent need of food, water and shelter,’ said the UN International Organization for Migration.
‘With thousands of migrants (including Bangladesh nationals) still awaiting authorisation to cross into Tunisia, there is an urgent need to decongest the border area which lacks adequate facilities to host large numbers of people,’ Marc Petzoldt, IOM’s chief of mission in Tunisia, said Tuesday.
Only about 300 Bangladeshis have returned home and 527 more were on the way, while the government is seeking help from Tunisia, Niger and Egypt to provide temporary refuge.
Bangladeshi nationals are facing trouble in crossing into Tunisia as there ‘is no Bangladesh government representative there’, according to an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Over 60,000 Bangladeshis are employed, most of them as construction workers, in Libya that is witnessing a massive uprising against the 41-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi. Over two weeks of bloodshed have left an estimated 1,000 people dead.
Dhaka has sent messages to the IOM and the ICRC, while commissioning commercial charters to air-lift its nationals.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni held separate meetings with the IOM director general William Lacy Swing and ICRC president Yves Daccord in Geneva Tuesday, the foreign ministry announced.
She requested them to extend all-out support to ensure safety and security of the Bangladesh nationals stranded in Libya.
Three IOM chartered flights with 750 Bangladeshi migrants are expected to arrive in Dhaka.
Another 143 Bangladesh citizens who fled violence in Libya and were now staying on the Greek island of Crete would also be ferried home by their employers by two Emirates flights, according to foreign ministry.
Over 300 workers have crowded the embassy in Tripoli, The Daily Star said.
Bangladesh Ambassador in Libya ABM Nuruzzaman Tuesday denied reports that the embassy itself had been ransacked or looted.
There are no plans for the embassy staff to evacuate. ‘We’re still safe, and we haven’t thought in that line,’ Nuruzzaman told the United News of Bangladesh (UNB).
The weather is reportedly cold and windy, particularly along the Egypt-Libya border areas, where the largest number of Bangladeshis have arrived.
Bangladeshis trapped in different Libyan cities, including Tripoli, were worried about their safety and security.
‘Most of the people do not know where they would go and what they would eat in the coming days,’ said Mohammad Sadeque, a Bangladeshi chartered accountant who returned home from Tripoli Tuesday.
The situation turns dangerous after dusk everyday when bands of anti-government protesters roam the streets, he said.
