Thousands of angry Egyptian workers packed a UN refugee camp in Ras Ajdir, Tunisia. The young men shouted and waved, pressing against soldiers, or climbing over each other and passing bulging suitcases overhead — all in a desperate bid to remain in Tunisia.
Elsewhere in the sea of sloping white UN plastic tents, rows of angry Bangladeshis raised their arms and jostled to be evacuated from sun-baked dirt villages cropping up in the desert that Tunisian National guard members had ringed with razor wire.
Other refugees resigned themselves to sitting in lines in the dirt, waiting for a plastic cup of water. Some kicked a ball around outside a hangar where every wall was claimed as a campsite.
Fleming said Libyan strongman Moammar Khadafy’s forces appear to be targeting Egyptians and Tunisians, apparently thinking they are the main trigger of the uprising against the leader’s 42-year-old regime. Authoritarian regimes in both neighboring countries have been toppled in the last two months by a wave of popular protests.
There are “many, many terrified refugees’’ in the Libyan capital of Tripoli who are afraid to move for fear they will be killed, Fleming said in an interview.
Some Somali and Eritrean workers around Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, which is now under the control of opposition forces, are also feeling “hunted’’ as they are being mistaken for mercenaries hired by Khadafy, she said.
Human Rights Watch warned that fleeing African workers were “particularly under threat due to popular anger’’ over Khadafy’s mercenaries.
As border crossings were overwhelmed with mostly young men, UN specialists warned that fast action was needed to protect and feed them before a humanitarian crisis or riots broke out.
Angelina Jolie, a UN good will ambassador for refugees, appealed yesterday for all nations to give people safe passage, evacuation if needed, and ensure they have asylum.
“All I’m asking is that civilians be protected, and not targeted or harmed,’’ the actress said. “We don’t want to look back and find their deaths are on our hands.’’
Betty King, the US ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Washington is giving $12 million to help with evacuations and “understands the incredible strain such large numbers of people have placed on receiving governments.’’
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said his nation began an airlift yesterday to help Egyptians stranded on the Libyan-Tunisian border get back home. The British planes, departing from Djerba, Tunisia, will help evacuate up to 8,800 Egyptian migrants to Cairo.
“These people shouldn’t be kept in transit camps,’’ Cameron said.
The Egyptian military sent two ships to Tunisia to bring back stranded Egyptians who fled from Libya. Egyptian Ambassador Mohamed Abdel-Hakam said more than 103,000 Egyptians have returned from Libya either through the airports or by land since the political situation deteriorated in Libya, and 20,000 foreigners have fled into Egypt from Libya.
