Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday directed relevant ministries to continue co-operating with Vietnamese representative agencies in riot-stricken Libya to ensure the safety of Vietnamese guest workers there and quickly send them back to the homeland.

Reports from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) said among 10,500 Vietnamese nationals in Libya, there were about 2,000 people working in Benghazi where the riot broke out, and 5,000 others working in Tripoli where the unrest recently spread.

Besides safety, the top concern was the food shortage, the ministry said.

Speaking to a Vietnam News Agency reporter from Libya, Vietnamese Ambassador Dao Duy Tien said the unrest had a serious impact on Vietnamese guest workers, many of whom work at construction sites. As of now, most of the sites that hired Vietnamese had been shut down.

To date, the ambassador claimed that all Vietnamese workers in Libya were safe.

As the unrest continues, Viet Nam has sped up its evacuation process. As of yesterday morning, the agencies in co-operation with partners in Libya had completed procedures to take 4,572 workers to neighbouring countries including Egypt, Turkey, Matla and Greece to then be sent back to Viet Nam from there.

Figures showed that 412 evacuees were currently moved to these third countries and 382 people were on the aeroplane to Viet Nam. However, the evacuation faced many difficulties, notably the means to transport Vietnamese to neighbouring countries as most activities in Libya were frozen.

The Prime Minister has also requested the Foreign Affairs, Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and Public Security and Defence ministries to send one deputy minister each to Libya to help the evacuation.

Dung requested relevant ministries to quickly implement the plan while utilising the resources of the employer partners to transfer Vietnamese guest workers to Viet Nam. The rest of the expenses would be covered by the Government.

He called on MoLISA to receive and provide initial support of VND1 million (US$50) for each returnee and continue carrying out assistance policies in line with existing regulations.

New flights to Cairo

Under the instruction of the Prime Minister, Vietnam Airlines has arranged two flights on the route Ha Noi - Cairo - Ha Noi to carry Vietnamese guest workers who had already fled to Egypt from Libya.

The flights are scheduled to take off fromHa Noi on Monday and Tuesday nights. The aeroplanes are Boeing 777, which seat up to 324 passengers. The return flights are scheduled to take off at 9AM local time on Tuesday and Wednesday and are expected to arrive at Noi Bai International Airport at 10PM the same day.

The flight from Ha Noi to Cairo is estimated to take 11 hours, while the return flight will take eight hours.

Source: VNS