123 Indonesians still waiting for evacuation from Libya

[News_Editor]

123 Indonesians still waiting for evacuation from Libya

2011-03-11 00:40:08 GMT+7 (ICT)

TRIPOLI (BNO NEWS) -- At least 123 Indonesians are still in Libya, more than the previous number announced by the government earlier this week, the Jakarta Globe reported Thursday.



On Monday, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said 809 Indonesians had been evacuated from Libya and only 61 Indonesians remain in the conflict-torn country. But Soekirno, the deputy chief of the task force handling the evacuation of citizens from Libya and Egypt, gave different figures on Thursday. â€¨â€¨

"Since February 26, 629 Indonesians have been evacuated from Libya through air, land and sea transportation," he told reporters. 

On Sunday, about 253 Indonesians were evacuated from Libya after waiting more than 40 hours for an aircraft the Indonesian embassy had chartered. The travel documents and boarding passes of the Indonesian evacuees had been obtained since Friday morning but the chartered aircraft's landing permit was not soon issued by the Libyan authorities.

Soekirno added that some of the Indonesians in Libya have decided to stay to work.
 The evacuations are being coordinated by the Indonesian embassies in Tripoli, Tunis and Cairo. The task force is also in the process of returning evacuated Indonesians to Egypt. 



"As of March 8, 340 citizens have returned to Cairo out of the total 1,985 who registered on the Web site of Education Ministry to be returned there," Soekirno said, as cited by the Jakarta Globe.

Thousands of foreign nationals are being evacuated from Libya as fighting increases. Libya has been plunged into chaos as massive anti-government protests continue nationwide, resulting in a violent crackdown by security forces which included aerial bombardments on protesters. Up to 2,000 people are believed to have been killed in the uprising.

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