Update 2 March Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Libyan government Tuesday 1 March sent troops to the remote southern border crossing of Dehiba, reports Reuters, ignoring the warships massing around the country. Humanitarian agencies in Geneva meanwhile report that Monday saw the heaviest outpouring of refugees from Libya to date, 14,000 people, with another 10-12,000 expected Tuesday.
The Tunisian border has seen more than 75,000 people cross the border from Libya since 19 February, the vast majority of them Egyptian, and another 40,000 are waiting to cross the border. The massive exodus is putting an enormous strain on local resources in Tunisia, report the IOM and UNHCR in Geneva.
Joint project to speed up evacuations to avoid humanitarian disaster on Libyan border
UNHCR and IOM joined forces late Tuesday, working in partnership with the Egyptian and Tunisian governments, to put in place plans for handling the massive evacuation from Libya on the Tunisian border. Thousands of Egyptians, but also citizens of several other countries, need to be moved rapidly beyond the border areas to avoid a humanitarian disaster. The two Geneva UN organizations are appealing to governments to fund the joint effort and to send experts and supplies as well as to provide boats and planes urgently.
Updates from international organizations in Geneva that are heavily involved in helping the refugees:
UNHCR: UN High Commissioner for Refugees staff at border points Tuesday said the situation is quickly reaching a crisis point, with transport to move those who have just arrived on to their final destinations. Thousands have waited three days on the Libyan side of the Tunisian border, with no shelter at night and bitterly cold temperatures. Self-appointed border guards are refusing to let sub-Saharan Africans cross into Tunisian. Some 1,000 tents that will hold 6-8 persons are being erected Tuesday, and UNHCR is appealing to Unicef and ICRC for more assistance in supplying precariously scarce drinking water and food to the refugees.
ICRC: Medical staff from the International Red Cross are waiting with supplies, ambulances and equipment to enter the western part of Libya to, but conditions are as yet too unstable and the ICRC is calling on Libya to allow it to help the wounded and those in need of medical care.
IOM: Sea and air evacuations organized by the International Organization for Migration are picking up speed, with about 900 Egyptians being flown from the island of Djerba on five planes carrying about 900 people and another 1,450 Egyptians heading for the sea port of Sfax where they will pick up a chartered sea vessel. Bangladeshi refugees are also being helped to move on from Libyan border points and the IOM is working with their government to get them home.
Correction 19:31 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s upper house of parliament voted 3 December to transfer to private companies the authority to check cars for valid autoroute stickers and file charges against drivers who do not have them, at Switzerland’s seven motorway border crossings. The lower house of Parliament has opposed this move, saying it is the exclusive purview of the state. The motion now returns to the lower house.
The budget commission of the upper house agrees with the government that customs officials should dedicate themselves to more complex tasks, leaving the job of checking stickers to a private company.
