Rescue ferry sails out of Libyan port
The ordeal of hundreds of Americans and other foreigners stuck on a ferry for three days has ended as their ship finally left a Libyan port.
But thousands of Chinese workers hoping to be evacuated from the chaos are still stranded by rough sea.
The Maria Dolores, carrying 167 US citizens and 118 other foreigners, left Tripoli’s As-shahab port for Valetta, Malta.
Its passengers have been aboard the catamaran since Wednesday but high seas prevented it from leaving. The voyage to Malta was expected to take some eight hours, said Hanri Salia, managing director of Virtu Ferries which leased the ferry to the US government.
Tens of thousands of foreigners are trying to flee Libya, with Turks and Chinese climbing aboard ships by the thousands.
Europeans are mostly boarding evacuation flights while North Africans race to border crossings in overcrowded vans.
European countries scrambled to send more ships and military planes.
China dispatched a navy ship to support the evacuation of its citizens. An estimated 30,000 Chinese live in Libya.
The bad weather forced Greece to suspend the evacuation of thousands of Chinese to the island of Crete today. But about 6,000 Chinese nationals were expected at Cretan ports on Saturday.
Up to 15,000 Chinese – about half the number of Chinese working in Libya on construction and oil projects – are expected to arrive by ferry in Crete and fly home on chartered flights.
Two Italian military ships are off the Libyan coasts, near Misrata, but rough seas are preventing the evacuation of some 150 Italian workers. Two Turkish ships on their way to Libya were also waiting for calmer seas, one near the island of Crete.
“The situation in Libya is getting worse. We are not talking about chaos anymore, but really about a civil war,” Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki said.
“Most of the country is in the hands of rebels and they lack centralised power. That’s why it’s so dangerous. Gangs are on the prowl in many places.”
Poland appealed to around 400 of its citizens in Libya to leave as quickly as possible, saying the window of opportunity is narrowing.
British naval ship HMS Cumberland, which sailed from Benghazi on Thursday afternoon for Malta, carried 207 evacuees, including 68 Britons.
The trip usually takes at least 15 hours but was expected to take hours longer because of rough seas. Prime Minister David Cameron said a second warship – HMS York – was being sent to waters close to Libya to help with rescue missions.
Greece had to overcome serious hurdles to obtain landing clearance to evacuate 230 Greeks from Libya to Athens early today.
“It was total chaos on every level, and quite troubling for the people involved. But we got our people out,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Dollis, who travelled to Libya to co-ordinate the effort. “It took us three days just to get clearance to land (in Tripoli and two regional airports). It’s difficult to get permission when no one is running the country.”
Turkey also faced severe problems in obtaining landing permits, but it was able to launch flights between Tripoli and the southern airport of Dalaman. Four Turkish military cargo planes brought more than 400 Turks home from Tripoli, the Foreign Ministry said.
More than 8,000 Turkish citizens have been evacuated by 26 planes and two ships so far.
Indonesia, Italy and Romania are among other countries that have evacuated or were preparing to pull out its citizens and other foreigners from Libya.
