800,000 Foreign Workers Still in Libya

TRIPOLI, KOMPAS.com - Some 800,000 foreign workers are still in Libya, according to an estimate by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Laurence Hart, the IOM mission chief in Tripoli, told AFP: "Based on IOM estimates, there are about 800,000 foreign workers of various nationalities still in Libya."

He added that he was not in a position to say how many of them wanted to leave the country but said the organisation had received requests for aid to help repatriate their citizens from the embassies of a number of African countries.

The IOM asked the Libyan authorities at the beginning of March for permission to send a humanitarian mission to the country where tens of thousands of immigrants were awaiting to be evacuated.

"We have still not received a reply," said Hart, who is currently away from Libya. Since February 20, some 280,000 people have fled the violence in Libya, 151,000 to Tunisia and 118,000 to Egypt, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).