The government has contacted with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) to take measures to protect and evacuate, if necessary, Bangladesh nationals stranded in politically volatile Libya, a senior foreign ministry official on Wednesday\u00a0said.
\n\u2018I have contacted the Libyan Red Crescent Society for ensuring safety and security of\u00a0stranded Bangladesh nationals,\u2019 Bangladesh ambassador to Libya ABM Nuruzzaman told New Age over phone on Wednesday.
\nHe said Bangladesh nationals working for South Korean companies in the trouble-torn Libyan port city of Bengazi are likely to be evacuated to Egyptian border to ensure their safety amid chaotic situation in Libya.
\nZaman said he also requested the officials of Korean companies Daewoo Hyundai and Dong Ah to evacuate Bangladesh nationals stranded at their factories in Libya. \u2018The Daewoo official said Bangladeshis, along with other workers, are likely to be evacuated from Bengazi to Egyptian border,\u2019 he said.\u00a0
\nA camp has been set up in Bengazi, which is about 1,000 kilometres away from Tripoli, and \u2018we are advising Bangladesh nationals to go there\u2019, he said.
\nMoazzem Hossain, who works for a Chinese company in Tripoli, said there was no electricity for last couple of nights and the stock of food at their shelter was declining as they could not go to markets for last couple of days due to curfew and insecurity. \u2018Tripoli is gradually becoming unliveable,\u2019 he said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nAt least 50,000 Bangladesh nationals have been currently working in Libya, the government on Tuesday said.
\nAt least 233 people were killed in the political upsurge in Libya, according to international news agencies.
\nHowever, there was no Bangladesh national among them, the ambassador said.
\nIn Dhaka, the government \u2018has started communications\u2019 with the IOM and requested the organisation to \u2018exchange information\u2019 about Bangladesh nationals in Libya, an IOM spokesman told New Age on Wednesday afternoon.
\nForeign secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes held a meeting with the IOM\u2019s Regional Representative for South Asia Rabab Fatima at the foreign ministry on Wednesday.
\nThe IOM \u2018has been observing\u2019 the situation in Libya, the spokesman said. \u2018If the government requests for any support for Bangladesh nationals stranded in Libya, the IOM \u201cwill consider\u201d to take measures in consultation with its headquarter.\u2019
\nSeveral governments have asked IOM for assistance to evacuate their nationals from Libya. With the situation in Libya itself extremely difficult, IOM is looking for alternative routes for evacuations, according to an IOM release on February 23 from its headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland.
\nThe IOM has already opened a migrant reception centre at Tunisia\u2019s border (with Libya) where migrants of various nationalities have begun to cross into Tunisia in efforts to escape the violence and to get back to their home countries.
\nAdditional IOM staff will be deployed to the border area to help migrants arriving from Libya.
\nJerome Fontana, an ICRC official in Dhaka, told New Age on Wednesday that the ICRC \u2018is collaborating\u2019 with Bangladesh to evacuate stranded Bangladeshi nationals.
\nThe ICRC \u2018stands ready\u2019 to respond to any urgent humanitarian needs, according to an ICRC release issued from its Geneva headquarter on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of New Age<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government has contacted with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) to take measures to protect and evacuate, if necessary, Bangladesh nationals stranded in politically volatile Libya, a senior foreign ministry official on Wednesday\u00a0said. \u2018I have contacted the Libyan Red Crescent Society for ensuring safety and security … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2184,2185,2181,2182,2183],"yoast_head":"\n