Misery at the border as Gaddafi's guests flee (Robert Fisk reports)

[Turborama]

Source: The Independent (UK)

Libya's migrant workers have become a pitiful human tide. Robert Fisk reports

Tuesday, March 01 2011

"We want the Egyptian army – why isn't our army here?" they shouted in their thousands: the refugees, the poor, the sick – the wealthy having long ago fled Gaddafi's rump dictatorship – as they stormed around the frontier station through refuse and muck. They are the people of Cairo and Alexandria and Sohag and Assiut and a thousand Delta villages, all with their monstrous, preposterous, overweight baggage of cheap clothes and bedding.

The Egyptian army cannot come to Tunisia, of course, to save the tens of thousands of its countrymen pushing their way over the border. Only the Egyptian navy came yesterday, in the shape of a black-painted frigate that carried just 1,000 men, women and children home over rough, wind-topped seas.

But the misery at the border was greater than any ship of mercy. Perhaps 7,000 people – perhaps 8,000, the figures are as imperfect as they are unable to convey such suffering – squeezed themselves up to the last Libyan barrier and over into Tunisia. Libyans beat them – and then the young men of Ben Gardene beat them for arriving in their nearby Tunisian town to take their jobs. The Egyptians were not seeking work – nor were the thousands of Bangladeshis with no embassy in Tunis, nor the Chinese, nor the Filipinos. For yes, this was misery from what we once called the Third World, now made jobless and homeless by a truly Third World dictator.

=snip=

Four more Egyptian naval ships are en route to Tunisia, a bigger task force than the British and Americans sent for their own evacuees. But even these vessels will not be able to carry the growing crowds at the frontier.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/misery-at-the-border-as-gaddafis-guests-flee-2228515.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[maddezmom]

2. Tunisia asks for help in tackling border chaos

smaller_textlarger_textprint_articleTunisia’s government has called for help in dealing with the thousands of Egyptian labourers and other foreign workers who have streamed across the border to avoid the turmoil in Libya.

With so many people to cope with most have been given the minimum to sustain them – some milk and bread and perhaps a blanket.

“The situation here is almost a catastrophe,” said one man. “We call on all the organisations of the world, all governments all humanitarian associations to intervene to help these people return home with dignity.”

The United Nations has called on Libya’s neighbours to keep their borders open and not to restrict those fleeing the violence.

more:http://www.euronews.net/2011/03/01/tunisia-asks-for-help-in-tackling-border-chaos/

[maddezmom]

3. Situation on Libya-Tunisia border reaching "crisis point", says UN

Situation on Libya-Tunisia border reaching "crisis point", says UN
Mar 1, 2011, 10:53 GMT


Geneva - The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday that the situation at the Libya-Tunisia border was reaching a 'crisis point' as more people fleeing violence arrive in the area.

The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile warned that it still did not have access to vast swathes of Libya, two weeks after the crisis began.

'It is high time people's humanitarian needs are met and humanitarian agencies can enter into rest of the country and help those in need,' said ICRC spokeswoman Anna Nelson, urging both sides in Libya not to attack patients and doctors.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the largest concern was for the west of Libya, where access and information were very limited. In Benghazi in the east, the situation was said to be calm and aid was being accepted.

more:http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1622814.php/Situation-on-Libya-Tunisia-border-reaching-crisis-point-says-UN

[joshcryer]

4. Please forgive the dark analysis, but this is a good thing.

It removes many many civilians from the equation. The west of Libya is going to be fraught with violence soon.

[Ghost Dog]

5. Perhaps Turkey could do more to help with these evacuations

and other humanitarian actions.

[Turborama]

6. Video report from CNN International

Accompanying this article: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/01/libya.refugees/index.html">Nearly 150,000 flee Libya; UN reports crisis along borders

Graphic from WaPo:

[maddezmom]

7. Libya: Tunisian border guards struggle to control tidal wave

Police and aid workers dragged dozens of unconscious people from the seething tide of desperate migrant workers crushed up against the concrete wall that divides the two countries at the Ras Jedir frontier post, while soldiers have fired in the air to disperse gangs of criminals seeking to extort money from the refugees.



¬snip¬

British aid officials have been stationed on Libya's borders with Egypt and Tunisia to prepare to assist with the humanitarian emergency, said Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary.

"We are monitoring very carefully what is happening there," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. "Today we are flying, from our stocks in Dubai, tents and blankets and support in conjunction with the UN to help people."

Local volunteers have joined the relief effort, providing water and food to the refugees. But Hamdi Henchiri, a police officer, said expressed concern about "a growing criminal element which is trying to profit from the situation, by asking for extortionate amounts of money to take the new arrivals to the nearest town."

more:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/tunisia/8354934/Libya-Tunisian-border-guards-struggle-to-control-tidal-wave.html