Over 7,000 Indians from Libya to be back by tomorrow: MEA

Over 7,000 Indians out of 18,000, stuck in strife-torn Libya, would have been evacuated by tomorrow as the private companies were also flying out their professionals and workers.

"So far, over 6,000 Indians have been evacuated and we are expecting another thousand to come in by late tonight," External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told reporters here.

The air-bridge between Tripoli and Delhi, already picking up over a thousand Indian nationals daily out of Libya, was being supplemented tomorrow by another Boeing 747, the MEA said in a statement here.

Earlier, three Air India planes--two Boeing 747s and one Airbus-330--arrived, as usual, from Tripoli with 1,050 passengers on board, it said, adding arrangements are being made to send them to their home towns.

The ministry has also pressed into service another ferry ship, reaching Misurata (Libya) from Malta by midday tomorrow and was expected to return to Malta in the forenoon of Saturday. Kingfisher and Jet Airways aircraft will then fly out the Indian nationals from Valetta.

MV Scotia Prince reached Alexandria last evening with 1,188 passengers. Five air sorties including four Egypt Air special flights are bringing the passengers home.

The ship is scheduled to return to Benghazi (Libya) by March 5 to bring back the next batch of passengers to Alexandria.

An IAF IL-76 (Gajraj) has also been positioned in Egypt to assist in the current operations.

Besides the initiative of Indian companies such as DS Construction, Punj Llyod and MN Dastur and Co. In flying out their professionals and workers, the Indian Embassy in Tunis is assisting with special flights out of Tunis and Djerba, the MEA said.

"Our Embassy in Cairo is similarly continuing to assist Indian nationals crossing the Libyan border at Salloum to take commercial flights to Indian destinations from Cairo," it added.