06 March 2011
The British Government will provide emergency evacuation flights to repatriate 500 Bangladeshis stranded in Tunisia after the International Development Secretary assessed the scale of the humanitarian situation for himself during a visit to a Libyan border camp.
During his time in the transit camp just beyond the border area near Rad Ajdir on Friday, Andrew Mitchell met some of the 191,693 displaced migrant workers who have been leaving Libya, including many from Bangladesh.
Following his visit, the British Government will provide three commercial charter planes to fly 500 Bangladeshis home. The planes will leave Tunisia's Djerba airport for Bangladesh's capital Dhaka today (Sun 6 March).
This comes after the UK flew 6,195 Egyptians away from the camps and back to Cairo following the UN's request for international assistance to get those people out and home. Blankets and tents were also delivered to provide shelter for up to 7, 500 people.
Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary, said: "I have seen for myself the scale of the humanitarian situation on the Libyan border with Tunisia. I vowed that we would do everything possible to give those stranded shelter and get them back home as quickly as possible.
"We have already evacuated more than 6,000 Egyptians and this early action has so far prevented a humanitarian crisis. But Britain is not complacent, which is why we are acting now to get 500 Bangladeshis home safely.
"Unless we continue to relieve the numbers in border camps, there is still a real danger the situation will deteriorate rapidly. We are prepared for further surges of people who may be on the other side of the border.
"But the rest of the world must join Britain in giving their assistance to help transport them back home to restart their lives."
Bookmark with:
What are Bookmarks?