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STORY: UN / LIBYA REFUGEES EVACUATION
TRT: 1:26
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 30 MAY 2019, NEW YORK CITY
FILE
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN Headquarters
30 MAY 2019, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room
3. Med shot, reporters
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General:
“The UN Refugee Agency said that, amid the clashes in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, 149 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers were safely evacuated today to Rome. The evacuees – nearly half of whom are children – are from Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia, and many need medical treatment and are malnourished. These people were moved from a UNHCR facility after surviving for months in dire conditions in detentions centres in Tripoli. Today’s evacuation comes after 62 refugees from Syria, Sudan and Somalia were evacuated from Tripoli to UNHCR’s Emergency Transit Centre in Timisoara, Romania, before traveling onwards to Norway.”
5. Cutaway, reporters
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General:
“UNHCR is grateful to States which have come forward with evacuation places, but stresses that detainees are arriving at a faster pace than people are departing.”
7. Cutaway, reporters
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General:
“Also on Libya, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that six health workers have been killed and seven injured in the fighting in Tripoli, with two clearly-marked ambulances having been hit by shelling on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
9. Wide shot, press room
Reading a statement from the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq told reporters in New York today (30 May) “the UN Refugee Agency said that, amid the clashes in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, 149 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers were safely evacuated today to Rome.”
Haq also said “the evacuees – nearly half of whom are children – are from Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia, and many need medical treatment and are malnourished.”
There were 65 children, 13 of them below a year in age amongst the evacuees. One of the children was born just two months ago.
The group were moved from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency’s Gathering and Departure Facility (GDF), after surviving months in dire conditions inside detention centres in other parts of the city. The evacuation was carried out in collaboration with Libyan and Italian authorities.
The spokesperson said “today’s evacuation comes after 62 refugees from Syria, Sudan and Somalia were evacuated from Tripoli to UNHCR’s Emergency Transit Centre in Timisoara, Romania, before traveling onwards to Norway.”
He also said “UNHCR is grateful to States which have come forward with evacuation places, but stresses that detainees are arriving at a faster pace than people are departing.”
More than 1,000 refugees and migrants have been evacuated or resettled out of Libya by UNHCR in 2019, while more than 1,200 others have been returned to Libya by the Libyan Coast Guard in just May alone after being rescued or intercepted while attempting to flee by boat.
The UN spokesperson said that “six health workers have been killed and seven injured in the fighting in Tripoli, with two clearly-marked ambulances having been hit by shelling on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
According to UNHCR, more than 83,000 Libyans have been forced to flee their homes since early April, as rival forces continue to engage in fighting and heavy shelling.
The agency has provided more than 9,000 displaced people with emergency assistance and relief items and donated medical supplies and ambulances to hospitals through the Ministry for Health and the Libyan Red Crescent.
Nearly 600 people have lost their lives in the recent clashes, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
