GENEVA, May 4 (Reuters) - A ship aiming to rescue 1,000 African and Asian migrant workers and and people injured in fighting in the rebel-held Libyan port of Misrata docked there on Wednesday, the agency that chartered it said.
A spokeswoman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the vessel, the Red Star One which had been waiting offshore since Saturday as Libyan government forces shelled the city, would soon start loading.
During the delay, at least two seriously injured civilians had died among 36 waiting to be evacuated in the city to the east of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast, IOM officials reported earlier.
The spokeswoman said details on the ship&${esc.hash}39;s arrival in the port -- hotly contested by rebels and the forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for over two months since an uprising against him began -- would be released later.
The port is a lifeline for the besieged city, where food and medical supplies are running low, anti-Gaddafi rebels there say. Other rescue ships have been waiting offshore but there was no immediate news of their movements. [ID:nLDE742280]
Minesweepers from the NATO coalition whose aircraft have been bombing Libyan government military targets under a United Nations resoluition, had been searching the approaches to the harbour since Monday for a drifting mine.
The Albanian-registered Red Star One is carrying 180 tonnes of food, water and infant supplies. Hospital intensive care units have run out of beds and supplies.
The IOM said at least 23 journalists have also requested evacuation.
The migrants, who had been working mainly on construction and in Libya&${esc.hash}39;s oil industry, are from countries like Niger, Ghana, Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, Mali, Egypt and Bangladesh. Among them are some 71 women and children.
The IOM -- an independent agency set up outside the U.N. soon after World War Two when relations between the then Soviet Union and the West blocked action by the world body to help refugees -- has evacuated more than 5,500 people from Misrata.
In all, around 12,000 people have been rescued from the city by a dozen aid ships which delivered more than 3,000 tonnes of relief supplies, U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said. (Reporting by Robert Evans)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
