Editorial
Rescue mission in Libya
No time to wait
At long last some moves are afoot to start evacuating Bangladeshis trapped in Tripoli. A planeload of them has already come back home. One of our naval ships has reached Lebanon on way to Tripoli. The PM in a cabinet meeting has directed all concerned to stay prepared for evacuation of Bangladeshis by air and sea. In a country where the political chaos has already cost thousands of lives and 60,000 Bangladeshis have been stranded, their lives at risk, there is no gainsaying the urgency of rescuing them.
Some of the Bangladeshi workers have been relocated by the companies where they were employed, while others were able to cross the border into safer territory such as Tunisia and Egypt where they have been given shelter by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). However, the majority of workers remain stranded -- some abandoned even by their employers who themselves had to flee to safety -- without food, money or any means of getting out of the strife-torn country. How much worse must the situation get before the government will consider rescuing them? According to the Expatriates' Welfare Secretary, they will be evacuated with planes and ships if and when an international armed operation begins. Until then, it seems they will be left to their own devices.
We urge the government to start tackling the situation before the situation deteriorates further. The first task is to locate the Bangladeshis who are dispersed throughout several large cities in Libya and to then begin rescue efforts. We hope that the Foreign Minister's trip to Geneva to seek help from the ICRC and IOM will help matters. Teams have already been dispatched to Egypt and Tunisia to help the stranded workers obtain travel documents which will enable them to exit Libya and enter these countries. If there are those who do not wish to leave the country -- as the Expatriates' Welfare Minister has suggested -- they will remain there at their own risk. For the rest, it is the government's duty to rescue and protect its migrant workers who not only contribute significantly in terms of remittance but whose safety as Bangladeshi citizens is the ultimate responsibility of their home government.
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