By Libya Herald reporter.
Malta, 26 January 2015:
There have been reports of extra-long queues since last Thursday at both the main Libyan-Tunisian . . .[restrict]land border crossings.
The pro-HoR/Thinni government news agency, LANA, says that the long queues of both passenger and commercial vehicles carrying goods are as a result of the poor security situation and poor border management of the GNC/Libya Dawn administration in the west of the country.
At the Ras Ejdair border crossing, LANA Tunisia correspondent claimed that families ‘’fleeing the insecurity’’ of the western region travelling in the direction of Tunisia had to queue for over ten hours.
Commercial vehicles transporting goods into Tunisia also had to endure long waits due to the poor management of the border crossing under the GNC/Libya Dawn administration, the LANA report claimed.
Meanwhile, LANA’s correspondent in the Western Nefusa Mountains also reported great overcrowding at the Wazen-Dheba border crossing in the direction of Tunisia, for both passenger and commercial vehicles. The overcrowding led to the very slow processing of travellers by the Tunisian border officials, LANA reported.
The report also claimed to quote some travellers who said that the lack of security and uncertainty in Libya had caused many of them to be in a state of depression and had motivated them to travel to Tunisia, and especially since it was school holidays. It will be noted that the school half-yearly two week holiday started on Sunday.
It must be kept in mind that even during the Qaddafi era as well as in the early honeymoon period of the 17 February revolution, airports and border crossings always experienced extra crowding during the school mid-year break. There have also been reports of long queues and poor border management under the previous officially elected governments of the western region too, it must be added.
It is therefore unclear if the LANA claim that the extra crowding at border crossing is due to the insecurity in the western region, can be borne out.
Equally, the lack of volume of flights out of Maetiga airport offering an alternative means of travel has no doubtedly also contributed to the extra queues at the Libyan-Tunisian borders. [/restrict]
