An additional 173 Vietnamese citizens working in Libya came home safely on August 11, bringing the total number of Vietnamese workers returning from the North African country to 626.

Of the returnees, 94 Vietnamese workers who were sent to Libya by the Vietnam Manpower Supply and Commercial Joint Stock Company (Vinamex) and the Republic of Korea’s Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd. boarded the second charter flight of Vietnam Airlines to return home from Egypt’s Cairo International Airport.

Another 79 were repatriated on commercial flights the same day.

Elaborating on the fact that there were only 94 boarding the second charter flight instead of 254 as planned, Vinamex Deputy Director Nguyen Duc Cuong said there was a change in bringing workers from Libya to Egypt.

Hyundai Engineering will keep coordinating with Vietnam Airlines to airlift its remaining some 400 workers to Vietnam in the next several days, he added.

By mid-July, Vietnam had 1,750 workers in Libya, including 281 working in war-torn areas of Tripoli and Benghazi.-VNA