Bangladeshi migrant workers who have moved to safer places in the wake of the intense fighting at Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya are now facing severe food and water crisis.
Libya, an oil-rich country in Africa, has been slipping deeper into chaos since intense fighting erupted nearly three weeks ago at Tripoli and Benghazi. At least five Bangladeshis were killed there over the last few days.
Most of the Bangladeshis had left Tripoli and Benghazi and taken refuge in the houses of their relatives.
Sanwar Hossain went to Libya eleven months back and was working at a construction company in Tripoli but he moved to a safer place due to the fighting between Islamist militants and coalition forces there.
Sanwar, who is from Shibpur in Natore, phoned his wife Shilpi Akter yesterday and said, “I am facing food and water crisis. I am also unemployed. What should I do? The airport is closed.”
Shilpi said, “My husband is in a desert. The company is not supplying food. My husband has no money and does not know what to do.”
Ahsan Kibria, first secretary of the Bangladesh mission in Libya, said Bangladeshis in Tripoli and Benghazi had moved to safer places. They may have taken shelter in the houses of their relatives and friends.
“We have asked our migrants to stay safe and avoid the conflict-prone zone,” he told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone on Thursday.
He said that 3,500 Bangladeshis were in Tripoli and around 2,500 in Benghazi. Most of them had moved to safer places on their own.
“Some of the migrants may suffer hardships as the situation gets worse in Libya,” Expat Secretary Khandaker Showkat Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune over the phone.
“As the situation has worsened around the two airports – one in Tripoli and the other in Benghazi – we have shifted our migrants,” he informed, adding, “We are seriously concerned about the situation but we have no plan to evacuate our migrants right now.”
According to the Bangladesh mission in Libya, 50,000-60,000 Bangladeshis are now working in Libya.
In 2011, the government, with the help of International Organisation for Migration, evacuated around 36,000 Bangladeshi migrants from war-torn Libya.
