VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam is considering the possibility of hiring military vessels or aircrafts to save Vietnamese workers who are stuck in Libya, said Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affair Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

 

More laborers back home from Libya and their stories

 
On February 28, three working groups were sent to Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey to assist Vietnamese workers.

 

The same day, a Vietnam Airline flight carrying 8 tons of food left from Vietnam to Cairo, Egypt. The food will be transported to the border, where thousands of Vietnamese are waiting for transit.

 

By the afternoon of February 28, around 1000 Vietnamese workers arrived in Vietnam. Over 4,600 were evacuated to other countries, including over 1000 at Benghazi port, waiting for ships to go to Malta, Turkey and Greece, 300 others at the Libya-Egypt border, around 700 on the move to the border of Tunisia and Algeria and the remaining at the airport and seaports of Tripoli.

 

Many foreign employers have left Tripoli, leaving Vietnamese workers there. Minister Ngan said that Vietnam may hire military ships or helicopters to bring Vietnamese from Tripoli to Tunisia and Egypt.

 

According to the Department for Management of Overseas Vietnamese Labor, around 2000 Vietnamese are now in Benghazi and some eastern cities of Libya. They can buy food now after protesters formed the provisional government.

 

Earlier, Vietnam set up a steering board chaired by Deputy PM Pham Gia Khiem and Minister of Labor Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to help Vietnamese in the Middle East and North Africa.

 

The board sent five working groups to five countries near Libya – Tunisia, Malta, Turkey, Egypt, and Greece.

 

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has also called on the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to give assistance to Vietnamese workers who are still stuck in Libya.

 

The Department for Management of Overseas Labor met with representatives of the IOM in Hanoi last weekend, to appeal to the organization to help Vietnamese workers who are still in Libya or stranded in neighboring countries after evacuation.

 

Such migrant workers have been notified of addresses and telephone numbers of IOM offices for contact in case of need.

 

Five years ago, IOM was very willing to assist Vietnam in evacuating nearly 200 Vietnamese workers from Lebanon when it came under military attack from Israel.

 

The Department for Management of Overseas Labor expected that the total number of Vietnamese workers to be evacuated from Libya by March 2 will amount to more than 7,400.

 

Over 10,000 Vietnamese were working in Libya when the political crisis took place.

 

PV