Udupi: Libyan Crisis - 15 From Coast Expected to Return on Sunday

Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Mar 5: A team of 15 persons from coastal Karnataka, who have been forced to return to their motherland because of the law and order problems in Libya, are expected to reach their homeland on Sunday March 6. Around ten officials, led by Swaminathan, an officer in the Indian embassy, are in Libya for helping evacuation process of the Indians trapped in the rife-torn country.

A team of 60 Indians, who left from Libya, reportedly reached Cairo on way to India on Thursday itself. Another team of Indians, which was facing the prospect of getting trapped in Brega, Libya, has also reached Cairo on Friday. As per the request of Indian government, Egypt government has been providing security to these teams. Officials from the Indian embassy in Libya travelled to Egypt on Friday and established contact with the Indian teams there.

A member of one such team, on the condition of anonymity, said that they have been provided accommodation in a five star hotel. However, the Indians there do not want their names and details of the hotel they are staying in to be made public, because of technical reasons. In all possibility, these Indians will be reaching Bahrain on Saturday morning, and catch onward flight to India.

The information that almost all the people from coastal Karnataka, who have been working in Libya are safe, has brought relief to their family members, who were spending sleepless nights after turmoil broke out in Libya. While the officials of the Indian embassy are confident that every Indian in Libya will be back in his motherland within a week, they have expressed difficulty in contacting some of them. Additional flights and ships are being arranged for carrying the Indians stranded in the country during next week. Sources estimate that about 7,000 Indians have returned to their homes from Libya, while about 10,000 more are yet to return.

The offices in Mangalore, including that of the district deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police here, do not have accurate figures about the number of people from the coast living in Libya. The airport officials say they have no information about any passenger returning from Libya. Even Gulf Welfare Association, which used to receive information during the crisis in the Gulf in the past, does not have information relating to the above. Most of the people from the district working in Libya are engineers, doctors, and nurses, and a sizeable number of unskilled workers have also been working in Libya since long, because of attractive remuneration they get there. In most cases, their families have continued to live here.

One of the doctors from the coast, who was working in Libya, returned home on March 2. However, when contacted, he refused to speak.