Call for a 'outlet mass "at the border of Libya
The UN is concerned about the plight of tens of thousands of people waiting on the Libyan side of the border with Tunisia to be able to enter that country.
The UN launched on Tuesday 1 March an "urgent appeal" to the international community for a massive humanitarian evacuation of tens of thousands of people fleeing Libya and are currently waiting on the Libyan side of the border with Tunisia to be able to enter that country.
The High Commissioner Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have jointly launched the appeal.
The situation at the border between Libya and Tunisia has reached a critical level after the passage of 70,000 to 75,000 people who fled the repression since February 20th, and about 40,000 people, including Egyptians, waiting at the border today Libyan side, according to UNHCR.
In their communique, the two organizations say they have developed, in "consultation with the governments of Tunisia and Egypt, a joint program of evacuation, which aims to significantly improve efforts" to address "the humanitarian crisis on the border Tunisia ".
They are asking the international community "to urgently provide financial and logistical means massive, including airplanes, boats and specialized personnel.
Concern for migrants from sub-Saharan
The two organizations call this operation of "essential" because, says the UNHCR, the situation at the border " worse by the hour "because of overcrowding.
Earlier on Tuesday, Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for the UNHCR said in a news briefing that the UNHCR office in Tripoli, which remains open and operates with a local team receiving desperate calls from refugees and asylum seekers trapped in Libya.
UNHCR is particularly concerned about the fate of some Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who are prevented from crossing the Tunisian border.
They are "those who most fear right now," insisted the spokesman for the UN agency, citing messages from people saying "attacked by locals who say they are mercenaries ".
"We fear that racism plays a role," she was worried, calling that "all borders, land, air or sea (are) open a non-discriminatory manner to anyone seeking to flee."
Meanwhile, a spokesman for IOM, Jemima Pandya, explained that other groups migrants, to the Tunisian border, including Nepalese, Ghanaians and Nigerians, "urgently needed help," being forced to sleep under the stars by "freezing temperatures".
Tuesday, Rome has decided to send a humanitarian mission to Tunisia to assist some 10,000 refugees from Libya, during a ministerial meeting around the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
(Nouvelobs.com with AFP)
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