Libya: 200 more Indians to return, govt to use ship for rescue

Another batch of 200 Indians from Libya will arrive tomorrow night by a special flight, taking the total number of those evacuated from the strife- torn country in past two days to 500, including 44 nurses who reached Kochi today.
Government will also move out Indian nationals from Benghazi by a sea vessel to Malta in next few days.
"200 Indian nationals from Libya will return from Djerba (Tunisia) by special Air India flight tomorrow night," the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.
Meanwhile, a batch of 44 Indian nurses arrived in Kochi this morning from strife-torn Libya via Dubai and 14 other nurses were bound for different destinations in the country including 10 who will reach Kerala tomorrow morning.

Apart from taking a slew of measures to facilitate the departure of Indians in Libya, which is witnessing increased violence, the Ministry has issued number of advisories asking the Indians to leave the conflict-hit country and not to travel there.
Prior to the uprising in Libya, the number of Indians there was estimated to be more than 18,000.

The Indian professionals were mainly employed in hospitals and other teaching institutions whereas a major part of manpower was engaged in construction projects. During the course of revolution, most of them were evacuated to India in February-March 2011.
Few hundred Indians continued to serve in Libya even during the revolution period. Gradually more Indians have returned to Libya and there were about 6000 Indians before the outbreak of fresh violence there.

The demand of medical professionals and nurses in Libya is growing. Owing to the uncertain situation, recently the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) suspended grant of emigration clearance to ECR category till June 30, 2014.