Workers helped to urgently get out of Libya

Vietnamese representative offices in the Middle East and North Africa have by late Feb. 28 helped bring close to 1,000 Vietnamese workers in unrest-ravaged Libya home safely and more than 4,000 others out of the unstable country.
Vietnamese representative offices in the Middle East and North Africa have by late Feb. 28 helped bring close to 1,000 Vietnamese workers in unrest-ravaged Libya home safely and more than 4,000 others out of the unstable country.

The figures were provided by the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said those workers are currently in Egypt , Greece , Turkey , Malta , Tunisia and Algeria waiting for flights to home.

In the meantime, up to 3,000 out of 4,600 Vietnamese workers stranded in Libya are flocking to Libya ’s border areas, ports and airports for departing as soon as possible.

The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) correspondent in Cairo , Egypt , reported that the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) on Feb. 28 helped process necessary procedures for 119 Vietnamese workers at Egypt ’s Salloum border gate with Libya and sent them to the Cairo International Aiport.

A mission from Vietnam Airlines arrived the Cairo airport at 8 pm ( Egypt time) the same day, to aid the coordination of flights to bring workers home, the VNA correspondent said.

The first Vietnam Airlines plane, launched by the Vietnamese Government, is expected to land the Cairo airport at 7am (local time) on March 1.

The plane, carrying the working team led by Deputy Foreign Minister Doan Xuan Hung and nearly 10 tonnes of food for relief, will then transport 307 workers of Letco, Vinamex and Song Da Companies home.

At present, 581 Vietnamese workers are staying at the Cairo airport.

Hung’s working team will stay in Egypt for two days before flying to Tunisia, where they will set up a front headquarters to directly support the evacuation of Vietnamese workers from Libya.
On Feb. 28, the inter-branch working team led by Nguyen Ba Hai, Head of the Overseas Labour Management Department of the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), also headed to Malta.

Earlier, the team to Turkey arrived and the team to Greece was expected to depart on March 2 to help with the evacuation.

According to MOLISA Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, more than 1,000 Vietnamese workers arrived in Turkey , mostly at airports.

The MOLISA was working with the Turkish authorities on the hire of airplanes to bring those workers home, Ngan told the VNA reporter on the sidelines of the meeting of the Steering Committee for settlement of Vietnamese workers in the Middle East and North Africa in Hanoi on Feb. 28.

“The Vietnamese government will bring those workers who are yet to get out of Libya whatever it costs as soon as possible,” Minister Ngan said.

She affirmed that the Government will instruct the settlement of the issue to help the workers returned from Libya .

According to Ngan, there is a fund in support of Vietnamese labourers abroad, which is now used to support the bringing of workers in Libya home safely.

Mentioning difficulties the employers of these workers will meet later, Ngan called on both sides to work together to address these matters./.

See more