The boat, loaded with supplies and essential humanitarian and
medical aid, is also transporting about 50 humanitarian
workers from various organizations. It is due to arrive in Tripoli
at the weekend. Assuming security conditions are right, the IOM
chartered boat will dock and off-load the aid before migrants are
boarded for departure.
The departure of this second IOM boat comes as a first group
of 263 people were successfully evacuated by IOM from Tripoli on
Thursday night.
IOM staff reported increased shooting in the area around
the port as evening approached and with the IOM chartered boat
still in dock.
Among those evacuated were Egyptians, Lebanese, Algerians,
Filipinos, Americans, Swiss, Lebanese, Italians, Indians, Sudanese,
a German, a Canadian and an Iraqi.
The migrants, en route to Benghazi, will be temporarily
accommodated at a transit centre before being taken by IOM to the
Egyptian border and eventually assisted to return to their home
countries.
IOM staff in Tripoli say that getting migrants scattered
across the city to the port is the single most challenging issue of
the operation.
Continued fighting in parts of the city, the many checkpoints and sniper fire represent the main obstacles to movement within the city as well as lack of fuel.
“Movement is extremely slow as well as dangerous. Crossing checkpoints manned by different groups with different demands is very challenging,” says IOM Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Pasquale Lupoli. “And then there are snipers.”
Although IOM managed to get the 263 migrants to the port through arrangements with some concerned embassies and other parties, the Organization remains deeply concerned that migrants who want and need evacuation assistance may not be able to get it because they cannot get to the port.
Some, such as Sub-Saharan Africans, are largely on the
outskirts of Tripoli and far from the port vicinity.
The second evacuation operation will aim to assist groups of
Bangladeshi, Chinese, Filipino, Indian and Egyptian migrants.
For further information, please contact Jean Philippe
Chauzy, Tel: + 41 22 717 9361/+41 79 285 4366, Email:
jpchauzy@iom.int or Jemini Pandya,
IOM Geneva, Tel: + 41 22 717 9486/+ 41 79 217 3374
Email: jpandya@iom.int or Jumbe Omari Jumbe
Tel: + 41 22 717 9405/+ 41 79 812 7734 Email: jjumbe@iom.int
