The plane SHJ 5K241 of the Spain Airlines safely landed at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi at 4:00 am on Feb. 26, bringing first 176 Vietnamese migrant workers home from chaotic Libya.

Despite its late arrival of 24 hours, the safe flight was the result of great efforts by the government, relevant ministries and agencies and businesses which have Vietnamese workers in Libya .

At an unscheduled meeting on Feb. 25, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung assigned the Foreign Ministry to send one deputy minister together with representative agencies and businesses to work with Libyan authorities and partners on measures to ensure the safety for over 10,000 Vietnamese workers in Libya .

He also assigned the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) to receive and provide initial support of 1 million VND for each returnee and continue assistance policies in line with existing regulations.

Earlier on the same day, two groups of other 327 Vietnamese labourers who work for Turkey’s Ozaltin company in Derhan city, 260 km far from the border with Egypt, and the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Won company near Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi arrived in the Cairo International Airport in Egypt to make procedures for their return to homeland.

Among them, some 60 people will stay at the airport because they lost their passports on the way evacuating.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Egypt Pham Sy Tam said that the embassy has prepared food and drinks for these people as well as around 500 entrance-exit papers for passport losers.

In the face of the escalating instabilities in Libya , thousands of Vietnamese workers are expected to be evacuated by land to Egypt . On the evening of Feb. 25, nearly 400 people working for the RoK’s Huyndai company arrived the Salloum border gate to wait for migration procedures.

One day earlier, a Turkey-flagged sea vessel anchored at Benghazi to pick up 1,500 people, including 300 Vietnamese citizens.

According to the Vietnamese Ambassador to Egypt , other 700 Vietnamese labourers will enter Egypt through the Salloum border gate in the days to come.

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines promised to operate two flights on Hanoi-Cairo-Hanoi route to take Vietnamese labourers, who have been evacuated to Egypt , back home. The first will depart from the Noi Bai International Airport on the evening of Feb. 28 and the second will take off on March 1, using 324-seat Boeing 777s./.