On Sunday, 84 workers were airlifted to Kathmandu from Tripoli, the capital city of Libya that has become the epicenter of the ongoing unrest in the North African country, via Istanbul of Turkey.[break]
According to Hansa Raj Wagle, vice president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), 84 Nepali workers were first airlifted to Istanbul, along with migrant workers from other countries, and then to Kathmandu via Doha, Delhi and Bahrain. Of the total 119 workers who had reached Tripoli through Peace International Manpower Company of Kathmandu about a year ago, 35 Nepali workers are expected to return Nepal on Monday.
“As the streets in Tripoli turned into battlegrounds, we stopped our work a week ago,” Jagat Gurung, 33, a resident of Tangsing in Kaski, told Republica, after landing in Kathmandu. “We had been staying inside our camps since last Monday. Our company arranged for our return flights, stating that it was not safe to work in Tripoli.”
According to Jagat, though 90 workers were expected to board planes on Sunday, six had to stay back in Turkey due to problems in obtaining visas. “I hope all of my friends will return by Monday,” he said.
150 workers reach China
Of the total 600 Nepali workers stranded in Ghat, a south western city of Libya, 150 workers were airlifted to Beijing and Shanghai of China on Sunday. They had reached Libya to work in a construction project run by a Shino hydro company. “They are expected to return Nepal from China within a few days,” Wagle said.
Similarly, Ramco Trading and Contracting, a Qatar-based construction company, has informed that it will take some 200 workers to Qatar. “The Qatari company has already obtained permission from our government for this purpose,” Wagle said.
According to Dhan Bahadur Oli, Deputy Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), 30 Nepali workers have left Benghazi, the second largest city of Libya, for Sallum, an Egyptian border town. “They will go to Alexandria, an Egyptian city, by bus,” Oli said. “And, they will then fly back home from there.”
According to Tirtha Aryal, the first secretary at the Nepali Embassy in Egypt, a group of about 20 Nepali workers had entered into Tunisia from Zuwarah, a port city in North West Libya. “However, they had to return to Libya,” Aryal told Republica over phone. “I do not exactly know why they had to return to Libya. I guess they did not obtain transit visa in Tunisia.”
More workers return from Darnah
Of the total 562 workers who reached Alexandria from Darnah, a Libyan city where Nepali migrants were facing problems well before the current unrest began to spread, 104 workers came to Kathmandu on Sunday. Earlier, 61 workers had returned on Saturday. “More 72 workers will arrive in Kathmandu tonight,” Hem Lal Gurung, chairman of SOS Manpower Company, told Republica on Sunday evening. “The remaining 325 workers will be back by Monday. Flights have already been arranged for them.”
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