Exodus of workers from Libya speeds up

More than 3,700 Thai workers have fled the civil unrest in Libya and another 5,000 are set to head to Italy today, the Labour Ministry said yesterday.

A further 4,000 workers have been transferred from hostile locations but remain in Libya. All up, a total of 23,600 Thais were working in Libya when the crisis erupted.

Some 449 Thais had returned home on flights by yesterday, Labour Minister Chalermchai Sri-on said.

Another 31 workers were due to arrive in Bangkok at 8.45am today and an unknown number of Thais are on two more flights due to land at Suvarnabhumi at 2pm and 6.30pm this evening.

The first chartered ship will reach Tripoli tomorrow at 3pm local time to pick up 2,000 Thais and transport them to Tunis in Tunisia, and the same boat will transport another 2,000 Thais to Italy. These 4,000 workers will be flown back to Thailand from both countries - on Thai Airways aircraft and chartered passenger jets - together with an unknown number of others already in Greece and Egypt.

Thai consulate officials in Cairo have contacted another 150 Thais taken to Egypt by their employer. They will be flown back when visas and work documents are ready.

The Department of Employment said each worker was eligible for Bt15,000 in relief, as members of a government fund, and would be paid upon their arrival in Thailand. Anyone wishing to resume work with either Thai or foreign employers would get help with communications and contract counselling, deputy DoE director-general Sumet Mahosot said.

Apart from members of the state fund, which has Bt700 million available, payment would only be made to people whose contracts stipulate compensation payment when their work is ended by war or political conflict.

A team of nine DoE staff were flown to Italy today to help with contract negotiations and paperwork last night, in addition to a number of officials from both the Labour and Foreign Ministries already stationed in the region, and a team of Navy medical personnel.

A Thai worker in Libya, Yutthana Wit-upasai, explained the confusion associated with assistance and the evacuation process in two emails sent to The Nation. An evacuation rehearsal was conducted a few days ago to familiarise Thai workers with the actual process.

Yutthana said information over the means of evacuation to Thai workers in his group in Tripoli was [totally] inaccurate.

"I learned from Thai officials based in Malaysia that a ship would be ready for sea evacuation, initially on March 2, then March 1. Next, Thai officials who made a phone call to my friend in Thailand, [said] that instead it was an air evacuation. Now I am not sure if I will ever return home," he said.