The International Organization for Migration is concerned about the humanitarian situation of foreign workers who lived a hand-to-mouth existence even before the bloody uprising
LONDON (AlertNet) - Tens of thousands of impoverished migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia may be trapped by the escalating violence in Libyan cities, unable to leave the country because they cannot pay for transport to border areas, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday.
The Geneva-based intergovernmental body, which has 132 member states, is concerned about the humanitarian situation of these informal migrants, who were living a vulnerable, hand-to-mouth existence even before the bloody uprising against Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi began a week ago.
Large numbers of Asian and sub-Saharan migrants - most from West African nations, but also some from the Horn of Africa - work informally in Libya's service sector or as manual labour, for which they are poorly paid, according to the IOM.
It is unclear exactly how many people have fled Libya since clashes broke out between forces loyal to Gaddafi and armed anti-government militias but, according to Thursday's figures from IOM, at least 30,000 have crossed at the country’s two land borders with Tunisia and Egypt.
The majority are Tunisian and Egyptian, and only "a handful" of migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have turned up at the borders, probably due to a lack of resources to rent vehicles to get there, IOM said.
"We are very concerned for all those migrants who may wish to leave, but cannot," Laurence Hart, IOM's chief of mission for Libya, said in a statement.
Nigeriens are some of the first West Africans to leave Libya. IOM’s office in Niger’s capital Niamey reported that 170 Niger nationals have returned, and are now in a reception and transit centre in Dirkou, in the northeast. They said several hundred other Niger nationals are on their way to the border on trucks, although some have reportedly broken down on the way.
FUNDS NEEDED FOR EVACUATIONS
Hart said countries without sufficient resources to evacuate their nationals are now asking IOM for help. “We are therefore urgently appealing to donors for funding to allow us to intervene," he said.
IOM spokesman Jean Philippe Chauzy told AlertNet around half a dozen states - including the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam - have requested support to evacuate their nationals from Libya.
The agency says it currently does not have the funds to launch such an operation, and will make an appeal for additional contributions on Friday.
As well as being broke, informal migrants inside Libya may be too afraid to try leaving for a safer place, Chauzy said. "These people are at the best of times terrified," he said. "They are probably at home or in hiding; they may not want to be seen moving or travelling."
On Wednesday, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said it had received "alarming reports" Libyans were turning on refugees from other African countries, suspecting them of being mercenaries fighting for Gaddafi's administration.
"African refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea have told us that just being a black face in Libya is very dangerous at the moment," spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes told Reuters.
BEEFING UP HUMANITARIAN CAPACITY
IOM staff at the Ras Adjir border point between Libya and Tunisia reported that more people were crossing into Tunisia on Thursday than on previous days.
And a team from IOM Egypt, the UNHCR and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is due to begin an assessment at a crossing situated close to the Egyptian town of Salum, where around 15,000 Egyptians and a small number of Libyans have arrived.
The IOM said it is hoping to beef up its infrastructure for receiving the outflow of people.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Thursday it is preparing to send a special envoy - Ibrahim Osman, a former top IFRC official originally from Sudan - to the Middle East to assess national Red Crescent societies' needs to cope with the social crisis that has spread across the Arab world, as citizens rise up to push long-entrenched leaders out of power.
Spokeswoman Sadia Kaenzig told AlertNet the border crossings from Libya are not the scene of a major humanitarian crisis, but that the movement is facing a "huge humanitarian challenge".
"We will bring in the expertise to tackle humanitarian issues as they unfold - in the most effective way, and promptly as well," she said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), meanwhile, is stepping up preparations to support medical facilities and treat the injured in Libyan cities where violence has flared. Human rights groups say hundreds have been killed in attacks on protestors and fighting between armed factions.
The ICRC said late Wednesday it plans to send in three medical teams to help local staff, as soon as security conditions allow, as well as surgical supplies and medical items to treat up to 2,000 injured people. Hospitals in Libya reportedly lack basic drugs and other medical supplies, it added.
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