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By Rahman Jahangir.
Dhaka, Bangladesh, 25 October:
All 220 Bangladeshi nationals living in Bani Walid have been moved to safety, a senior official . . .[restrict]at the country’s foreign ministry said in Dhaka on Thursday.
Bani Walid, a former stronghold of ex-leader Muammar Qaddafi, has recently experienced heavy fighting between forces from the town and the national army together with allied brigades. The government claimed on Wednesday that it had seized control Bani Walid, although sporadic fighting was ongoing today.
“All 220 Bangladeshi nationals, who used to live in Bani Walid, have been moved to safe places by Bangladesh’s embassy in Tripoli with the assistance of the International Committee of Red Cross,” the foreign ministry’s director general for consular assistance and welfare, Sultana Laila Hossain, told the Libya Herald.
“Of the rescued Bangladeshis, 20 to 30 are now living in the Bangladesh Embassy in Tripoli while others were provided with accommodation in other parts of the capital” she said. About 70 workers were given protection by their employers whilst “the rest of the workers took refuge with their relatives or in friends’ houses,” Hossain said.
They are waiting for the situation to stabalise so that they could go back to work, she added.
Some 40,000 Bangladeshis were repatriated by the government in Dhaka following last year’s revolution, with help from various international agencies.
During the past nine months, over 14,000 Bangladeshis have come to Libya looking for work.
Meanwhile, a statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday said that its staff started transferring about 60 foreign workers, mainly from Bangladesh and India, to Tarhuna from Bani Walid.
Several of the workers had to walk at least 30 kilometres from Bani Walid to a place known as the Malta Mosque where they were met by members of the ICRC on 22 and 23 October.
“We are very concerned about the effects of the violence on the entire population still in Bani Walid, including of course the foreign nationals and the wounded. The situation is made all the more dangerous by the fact that the fighting is taking place in densely populated areas,” said Ishfaq Muhammad Khan, who heads the ICRC delegation in Libya.
“We are receiving many appeals to come to their aid. To be able to evacuate the injured from Bani Walid, we need safe access to the city. We are in contact with all those involved to make sure that we can get it.”
Since the start of the violence in Bani Walid, the ICRC has entered the city on two occasions, on 10 and 19 October. It has delivered surgical supplies to treat some 100 weapon-wounded patients, as well as other urgently needed medical supplies, to Bani Walid hospital and the Dahra polyclinic.
In its capacity as a strictly neutral and independent humanitarian organisation, the ICRC called on all those involved to respect the life, physical well-being and human dignity of others at all times. It urged everyone to respect and protect the injured, medical personnel, medical facilities and any vehicle used as an ambulance. Health-care and humanitarian personnel must be able to provide aid unhindered, it added. [/restrict]
