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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Apr 14 2011 - 08:31:00 EDT
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/58a54576-651d-11e0-b150-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1JV2hs8ya
UN says 500,000 flee Libya fighting
By Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: April 12 2011 18:26 | Last updated: April 12 2011 18:26
More than half a million people have fled Libya over the past two months,
the UN refugee agency reported on Tuesday as it warned that the exodus had
picked up pace in recent days
Those leaving were mainly migrant workers but included more than 100,000
Libyans. They represent about eight per cent of the prewar population.
By April 10, the UN had kept track of more than 498,000 people leaving Libya
by land since an uprising erupted in February, including more than 236,000
crossing to Tunisia, nearly 200,000 to Egypt, 36,500 to Niger and smaller
numbers to Algeria, Chad and Sudan.
On Sunday 3,900 people crossed into Egypt, more than double the recent daily
average, and nearly 3,000 entered Tunisia.
Aid agencies are concerned about growing numbers making their potentially
treacherous exodus by sea, with refugees – mostly from sub-Sahara Africa –
crammed on board unseaworthy fishing vessels. More than 200 are feared to
have drowned last Wednesday when their boat sank in bad weather about 40
nautical miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa
Italy has registered more than 3,300 people arriving by sea from Libya over
the past two weeks, while Malta has taken in just over 1,000. The UN said a
Maltese naval vessel on Tuesday rescued 116 people at sea. One woman was
reported to have died.
A ship chartered by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) was
heading to Libya on Tuesday to evacuate refugees trapped in the besieged
rebel-held town of Misurata.
IOM, a Geneva-based intergovernmental organisation, said the ship, capable
of taking up to 1,000 people, had left Italy and was due to dock in the
eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Wednesday morning to load
humanitarian supplies before proceeding to Misurata in western Libya.
Thousands of migrant workers are believed to be trapped by the fighting in
Misurata with no way out.
“When the ship docks we’ll see how many come out and request assistance,”
said Jean-Philippe Chauzy, IOM spokesman. “We are calling on all
belligerents to respect this humanitarian evacuation.”
IOM plans to take the refugees to Benghazi where they will transported by
road to the land border with Egypt. The ship is chartered to make two
journeys to Misurata. The IOM said it was in urgent need of funding for more
evacuations.
A Turkish ship helped about 250 people flee Misurata last week, while
vessels chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN
World Food Programme delivered aid.
Fortress Europe, which monitors migration flows, estimated that 800 people
have died while trying to leave north Africa by sea since January when a
rebellion in Tunisia triggered uprisings across the region.
Italy and others are concerned that Malta does not have the resources to
cope in the large search and rescue area under its jurisdiction.
Malta requested Italy’s help to rescue the stricken Libyan vessel in the
early hours of last Wednesday. Italy’s coastguard, already busy with two
other operations, alerted an Italian fishing vessel in the area and sent two
of its own rescue boats which arrived within five hours of being alerted by
Malta.
By that time the Libyan boat’s engines had stalled but rescue was impossible
in the high seas. It sank at dawn an hour later with more than 40 women and
children on board. The Italian boats managed to pull 51 people from the
water but between 150 and 250 are believed to have drowned.
Refugees interviewed by IOM in Lampedusa said the boat was carrying people
from Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Chad and Bangladesh.
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