Libya: First batch of Indians likely to return next week
Indian nationals wanting to return home from Libya will initially be evacuated by sea from Benghazi to Alexandria in neighbouring Egypt. A chartered passenger ferry with capacity to seat 1,200 persons is in Egypt and it was readying to sail to Benghazi with ministry of external affairs (MEA) personnel and medical team on board. The vessel, named Scotia Prince, is expected to reach Benghazi by February 27 and bring back at least 1,200 Indians to Alexandria by March 1, from where they would be flown home by special Air India flights.
New Delhi was working to obtain necessary clearances for air evacuation from Tripoli, too. “Aircraft are on stand-by for this purpose. Libyan landing clearance is awaited and should be received soon,” the MEA said in a statement. Preparations were also being made for evacuation of Indian nationals from smaller Libyan cities where air access was possible, subject to Libyan clearance. It said that Indian companies, many of them working in Libya for decades, had offered to work with the Indian embassy in Tripoli in facilitating evacuation.
As first reported by this newspaper, India would extend help to some of its South Asian neighbours to rescue their nationals from Libya. “We have arranged for our people to join the Indian ship which aims to evacuate the Indian [nationals],” Sri Lankan foreign employment minister Dilan Perera told journalists in Colombo on Thursday. About 1,200 Sri Lankans are estimated to be working in Libya.
The mammoth evacuation exercise will be reminiscent of India’s successful operations of rescuing not only its own nationals but also of its South Asian neighbours such as Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, from Lebanon in 2006 after the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out. The Indian Navy was then in the lead of “Operation Sukoon” to evacuate people from Lebanon.
The Indian Navy was awaiting permission to join the rescue efforts. Three naval ships, including INS Jalashwa (formerly USS Trenton), were on stand-by. All three are currently deployed off the Western coast. The INS Jalashwa is a landing platform dock for transportation of equipment and troops. It was acquired from the US Navy a few years ago. It is considered ideal for evacuation operations as it accommodate 1,500 persons at one time. The other two ships are destroyers (long-endurance warships meant for escorting larger vessels in a fleet or battle group). The two destroyers can ferry up to 200 persons each at a time. Once permission is granted, the ships will take about 12 days to sail to Libya.
“Let me assure the nation that all Indians are safe and all those Indians who are willing to be evacuated will be evacuated safely and without any expenditure incurred by them,” external affairs minister S.M. Krishna said. “We have commissioned ships to move to Benghazi port,” he said, adding that the first ship was “approaching the port”. Asked if there are plans for arranging aircraft for evacuation, he said that the “flight situation is very uncertain, but we are closely monitoring the developments”.
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