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EGYPT – LIBYA BORDER / HUMANITARIAN UPDATE
STORY: EGYPT – LIBYA BORDER / HUMANITARIAN UPDATE
TRT: 2.05
SOURCE: OCHA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 12 MARCH 2011, SALLOUM LAND PORT, EGYPT
1. Wide shot, 1st security checkpoint leading to Salloum Land Port
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khalifa, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“The biggest challenge we are facing here is the number of third country nationals. We have hundreds of people from Bangladesh and some African nationalities who are stranded on the border point.”
3. Wide shot, 2nd security checkpoint leading to Salloum Land Port
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khalifa, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“People do not have enough covered space to shelter themselves from the cold. The temperature drops drastically in the evening, it becomes very, very cold. For the last three days it was raining.”
5. Wide shot, entrance to Salloum Land Port
6. Med shot, entrance to Salloum Land Port and Egyptian flag
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Astrid Van Genderen Stort, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“We are really worried about the coming days. Of course we all know that the situation in Libya itself is not very good and it seems to be getting worse. We keep on hearing stories that a lot of people are on the way.”
8. Tracking shot, outside the Immigration Centre at Salloum Land Port
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigerian Man 1:
“This is where we have been staying here for 7 days now, with my family, with my wife and my kids. This is very, very, very difficult here. So, we are begging to the Western World to please come to our aid. We are not finding things easy here. We are normal human beings.”
10. Wide shot, food distribution queue
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigerian Man 2:
“We went through a lot of hell in Libya. Actually, thank God we are still alive, you understand? But we still have a lot of brothers out there trapped in their homes.”
12. Med shot, food distribution queue
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigerian Man 2:
“It’s been a living hell. We have been sleeping in the cold for days. I’ve been here for ten days now. My brother it isn’t easy.”
14. Med shot, food distribution queue
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Toby Wicks, United Nations Children's Fund:
“We are hearing that a lot of the people here will be moving on in the next 48 hours or so, so that will certainly, if we can decrease some of the congestion here, that will certainly improve the quality of living of the people who are here at this time”.
16. Various shots, food distribution queue
17. Close up, high energy biscuits being unpacked
18. Close up, Bangladeshi men stand in a queue to have their passports checked
19. Wide shot, Bangladeshi men stand in a queue to have their passports checked
20. Med shot, IOM officials collect passport photos to help facilitate onward travel of Bangladeshi nationals at Salloum
As fighting intensifies in Libya, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) voiced concern that people needing to flee combat areas and seek refuge are either unable to go or being prevented from doing so, even as the number of refugees nears 300,000.
SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khalifa, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“The biggest challenge we are facing here is the number of third country nationals. We have hundreds of people from Bangladesh and some African nationalities who are stranded on the border point.”
Khaled Khalifa from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) added that situation for sub-Saharan nationals in all parts of Libya appears to be particularly critical with agency hot-lines continuing to receive calls for help from trapped refugees and asylum-seekers and Eritrean refugees reportedly being detained in both the eastern and western parts of the country.
SOUNDBITE (English) Khaled Khalifa, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“People do not have enough covered space to shelter themselves from the cold. The temperature drops drastically in the evening, it becomes very, very cold. For the last three days it was raining.”
Most of those fleeing so far have been migrant workers. To date 280,614 people have fled the violence, including over 150,000 to Tunisia, with only 12,256 of them being Libyan. Another 118,000 people have fled to Egypt, with nearly all non-Libyan.
But yesterday, of 2,250 people reaching Egypt over 1,000 were Libyans, including numerous whole families.
SOUNDBITE (English) Astrid Van Genderen Stort, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations:
“We are really worried about the coming days. Of course we all know that the situation in Libya itself is not very good and it seems to be getting worse. We keep on hearing stories that a lot of people are on the way.”
Currently, some 3,500 people are stranded at the Egyptian border, the majority Bangladeshis, but the number of flights from Egypt to Bangladesh has now increased and yesterday nearly 900 Bangladeshis left. Conditions at the border continue to be harsh with very cold temperatures at night and inadequate shelter. UNHCR and partners have been distributing blankets, sleeping mats, food and water.
SOUNDBITE (English) Nigerian Man 1:
“This is where we have been staying here for 7 days now, with my family, with my wife and my kids. This is very, very, very difficult here. So, we are begging to the Western World to please come to our aid. We are not finding things easy here. We are normal human beings.”
There are now 141 persons of concern to UNHCR at the border, including Somalis, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Sudanese from Darfur, Ivorians and Palestinians and the agency has asked the Egyptian Government to allow refugees and asylum-seekers to enter and be accommodated away from the border area until a solution can be found for them.
SOUNDBITE (English) Nigerian Man 2:
“We went through a lot of hell in Libya. Actually, thank God we are still alive, you understand? But we still have a lot of brothers out there trapped in their homes. It’s been a living hell. We have been sleeping in the cold for days. I’ve been here for ten days now. My brother it isn’t easy.”
In Tunisia over 16,000 people at the border camp are awaiting onwards transportation or other solutions. On average some 3,000 people have arrived per day since Friday. Many of the new arrivals have told UNHCR staff that they spent many days at Tripoli airport before coming to Tunisia.
There have been 25 flights from Tunisia and Egypt since the start of the joint UNHCR- International Organization for Migration (IOM) humanitarian evacuation operation since 1 March. More than 6,000 people have already been flown home to Egypt, Bangladesh, and Mali in UNHCR-contracted planes. A further 15 flights are contracted for today to carry 3,000 people to Mali, Ghana, Chad and Niger. The agency’s operational reserve has provided $5 million for a further 75 flights carrying 15,000 third country nationals to sub-Saharan African destinations.
Meanwhile, 47 tons of UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) supplies have arrived in the town of Ben Guerdane on the Tunisian side of the border with Libya to cover needs in the areas of health, child protection, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene.
SOUNDBITE (English) Toby Wicks, United Nations Children’s Fund:
“We are hearing that a lot of the people here will be moving on in the next 48 hours or so, so that will certainly, if we can decrease some of the congestion here, that will certainly improve the quality of living of the people who are here at this time”.
UNICEF is also gearing up for an immediate response inside Libya, as soon as access is allowed and the security situation permits. Supplies currently available include 300 squatting plates for latrines, 10,000 blankets, 5,000 hygiene kits and nearly 100 early childhood development kits, which include educational toys and drawing sets.
While the number of families fleeing Libya is relatively small, UNICEF said it remains concerned about the situation across the border and the impact of the violence on the well-being of women and children.
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