Hundreds mass up at Libya-Egypt border

From: Ken Sackey, GNA Special Correspondent, Salloum

Salloum, Egypt, March 4, GNA - About 700 Ghanaians fleeing the political upheaval in Libya have massed up at Salloum on the Libya-Egypt border waiting to be processed by a special Evacuation Liaison Team (ELT) sent by the government to facilitate the repatriation of citizens back home. The numbers have been swelling by the hour as more Ghanaians converge at the border to enter Egypt from where they are flown home.

Majority of them are artisans although there are a number of women and children.

The team, which arrived at Salloum about 800 kilometres from Cairo, on Thursday immediately swung into action and processed 196 citizens who were transported to Cairo Airport to be flown to Accra.

The leader of the team, Mr Clarence Hugh-Tamakloe, said the major problem with the processing of the Ghanaians was that many of them did not have travel documents and the Egyptian authorities would not allow anybody into their country without valid travel documents.

He said it was easier to process those with valid travel documents, while new documents had to be prepared for those who did not have any documents.

He said those whom the team had processed would be transported to Cairo by Friday evening after the Egyptian authorities had cleared them.

Meanwhile, the evacuees who are part of thousands of people of various nationalities fleeing Libya, have been narrating harrowing experiences about their trip to the border. Some said they were threatened and beaten by Libyans, who claimed they were fighting on the side of the beleaguered Libyan leader, Mouammar Khadafi. Others also said they were denied their salaries by their employers.

The weather has not been friendly to the evacuees who have had to spend the night in the open in bitter cold weather. The vast majority of them, however, have blankets with

which they cover themselves, but the children and women are

the most vulnerable under the circumstances. The medical officials of the Team have been treating the

evacuees of various illnesses, including diarrhoea, bilharzia,

bodily pains, hypertension and urinary tract infection. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is

distributing food through the Egyptian officials, but there is no

order. The Government on Tuesday announced the establishment

an Evacuation Liaison Post at Salloum to coordinate the

evacuation of Ghanaian citizens from Libya. A six-member team including medical personnel from the

37 Military Hospital, National Security, and a journalist from

the Ghana News Agency (GNA) was put together to

coordinate the evacuation. The team is to augment the efforts of an advance party

from the Ghana Embassy in Cairo already at the border. The statement said Government was making similar efforts

for the Tunisia-Libya border while existing arrangements to

airlift Ghanaians in Tripoli and other cities in Libya continued. 4 March 11