IOM's sea and air evacuation of migrants from Tunisia's border
region with Libya is gathering momentum.

Earlier today, a group of 1,450 Egyptians left overcrowded
facilities at Ras Adjir on their way to the sea port of Sfax, where
they will board an IOM-chartered vessel that will take them to
Alexandria in Egypt.

IOM's air evacuation of Egyptians also continues today with an
additional five charter flights scheduled to leave from the island
of Djerba carrying about 900 people.

Additional flights are also scheduled to assist Bangladeshi
migrant workers who have managed to cross into Tunisia.

IOM is also working with the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign
Affairs to prepare for the arrival of a group of some 2,000
Bangladeshi nationals who remain stranded on the Libyan side of the
border. Reports say the Bangladeshis are exhausted and are in
urgent need of food, water and shelter.

"With thousands of migrants still awaiting authorization to
enter Tunisia, there is an urgent need to decongest the border area
which lacks adequate facilities to host large numbers of people,"
says Marc Petzoldt, IOM's Chief of Mission in Tunisia.

In the meantime, IOM is providing assistance to a group of some
1,000 Vietnamese migrant workers who arrived in Ras Adjir last
night. They will be transferred in the coming hours to a transit
centre set up some 5 kms inside the border.

Amid chaotic scenes at the border, IOM field staff managed to
identify other Third Country Nationals (TCNs) in urgent need of
assistance, including Nepalese, Ghanaians and Nigerians who were
sleeping rough in freezing temperatures.

In Egypt, where some 7,000 Egyptian migrants alone are in the
reception centre at the border crossing at Salum, the situation is
also difficult.

A group of 216 Ghanaians were transferred from Salum to Cairo
where they boarded an IOM-chartered flight for Ghana. The group is
expected to arrive later this afternoon in Accra.

Three IOM charter flights transporting 750 Bangladeshi migrants
will also depart within the next 24 hours for Dhaka.

Meanwhile, IOM has received reports of many thousands of
migrants stranded at Benghazi port waiting desperately to leave.
More migrants are due to arrive. Although the local community is
providing assistance to them, the cold weather is having an effect
on their health and food supplies are running low.

IOM is continuing to work on organizing an evacuation of the
migrants from Benghazi to the Egyptian port of Alexandria by boat.
Assistance would involve providing support for travel to the
embarkation point, issuing travel documents where necessary, sea
transport as well as reception and onward travel assistance to
final destinations in Egypt.

In neighbouring Niger, staff in an IOM's migrant reception and
transit centre in Dirkou are preparing for the arrival later this
week of an estimated 2,000 Nigeriens and other African nationals
who have recently managed to cross Libya's southern border at
Gatrone.

A convoy transporting 1,154 nationals from Niger has already
left Dirkou for the northern city of Agadez. The group is expected
to arrive later tomorrow.

IOM is working with local authorities and partners including
UNICEF, ICRC and MSF Spain to set up a transit centre in
Agadez.

"We are looking into providing assistance to the Nigeriens to
help them return to their homes in the capital Niamey and to the
southern regions of Maradi, Zinder and Tahoua," says Abibatou Wane,
IOM's Chief of Mission in Niger.

IOM is urgently appealing for an initial USD 11 million to
assist migrants caught out by the violence in Libya and who are in
dire need of evacuation and repatriation assistance.

For further information, please contact:

Jean Philippe Chauzy

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 22 717 9361

       + 41 79 285 4366

E-mail: "mailto:pchauzy@iom.int">pchauzy@iom.int

or

Jemini Pandya

Tel: + 41 22 717 9486

       + 41 79 217 3374

E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int