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STORY: EGYPT-LIBYA BORDER / STRANDED
SOURCE: UNHCR
TRT: 2.10
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 4 MARCH 2011, SALLUM, EGYPT
1. Various shots, stranded migrant workers from Bangladesh
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Shamsoudin Choudhury, Bangladeshi Worker:
“We stay here now one week. We are 6,000 Bangladeshi stay here. We are all the day here. No have food, no have water, no have anything here. We stay here under the sky, on the road, night and day. Here we sleep on the road.”
3. Pan left, Bangladeshi workers sleeping in the departure hall at Sallum border crossing
4. Various shots, Bangladeshi workers sleep rough outside at border crossing.
5. Various shots, Egyptians fleeing Libya wait at arrivals hall.
6. Various shots, stranded Bangladeshi workers talk to embassy official
7. Various shots, African migrant workers stuck at border crossing
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Franco Fauss, Migrant Worker from Ghana:
“The problem is now. As I’m talking most of us lack means. We don’t have money. Even food is not here. Water is not here. That is our big problem. So, if ay I ask, how can we survive? If here is no food, no water, how can we survive?”
9. Various shots, African migrant workers waiting to leave the border crossing.
They wanted to escape but found themselves trapped. Thousands of people are still stranded in no mans land at the Egyptian border crossing with Libya. Many of them are migrant workers, like these Bangladeshi men. They don’t fit the criteria to secure visas to enter Egypt, and even if they did, many don’t have enough money to travel home. And now they’re exhausted.
SOUNDBITE (English) Shamsoudin Choudhury, Bangladeshi Worker:
“We stay here now one week. We are 6,000 Bangladeshi stay here. We are all the day here. No have food, no have water, no have anything here. We stay here under the sky, on the road, night and day. Here we sleep on the road.”
The lucky ones have secured a spot on the floor of the departures hall. The rest sleep outside, with little protection from the cold.
Only those with Egyptian passports can get through without fuss. Tens of thousands have passed through here since the crisis began, tired from their ordeal at least they are returning home.
The Bangladeshis battle on with the bureaucracy. An embassy official comes to help, but they remain bewildered.
There is nothing here. No shops to buy food or water. These people are hungry. One man has already died while waiting to be moved on.
SOUNDBITE (English) Franco Fauss, Migrant Worker from Ghana:
“The problem is now. As I’m talking most of us lack means. We don’t have money. Even food is not here. Water is not here. That is our big problem. So, if ay I ask, how can we survive? If here is no food, no water, how can we survive?”
But help is arriving. UNHCR and other NGOs have brought in over 28 tonnes of goods to the border area while these people wait until flights home can be arranged for them.
