IOM is today beginning its first evacuations of migrants out of the
Libyan port city of Benghazi.

Priority is being given to about 200 particularly vulnerable
migrants, mostly women, children and those in need of medical
assistance.

Approximately 5,500 migrants have so far been identified at
various locations at the port and surrounding warehouses, mostly
from Bangladesh, India and Sudan but also including small groups of
Syrians, Ghanaians and other nationalities.

IOM in Benghazi said that upon talking to the migrants, many had
remained where they were either because they were afraid or because
they were unaware of assistance being offered at the Egyptian
border. Many of the migrants, particularly those from Sub-Saharan
Africa do not have documents, which would make it difficult to
cross the border.

Staff said they were impressed by the local people who had set
up support groups providing food and water to the migrants as well
as assisting those who do manage to leave for the border. The port
authorities were also helping to assist the migrants.

However, many Africans are afraid to leave their homes for fear
of being targeted and they along with the others, all of whom are
in a dire situation, need to be evacuated as quickly as
possible.

With an escort from the Libyan Red Crescent, IOM will initially
be evacuating small groups by road to the Egyptian border at Salum
where on average about 3,000 people are arriving from inside Libya
until sea evacuations are organized to Alexandria in Egypt.

At the border, IOM is providing humanitarian aid including food,
water and other non-food items as well as medical and travel health
assistance to those being evacuated, this includes help to a group
of about 3,000 Bangladeshis and 1,000 north Sudanese still in
no-man's land between Libya and Egypt.

Such assistance is becoming increasingly important both for
migrants stranded at the Egyptian and Tunisian borders without food
or shelter in freezing conditions but also for those escaping into
Niger and several thousand migrants stranded in places like Turkey,
Malta and Greece after an initial evacuation.

A donation by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and
Civil Protection (ECHO) of 3 million Euros will enable IOM to
provide critical humanitarian assistance to many thousands of
migrants in a distressing and difficult situation, both inside and
outside of Libya.

A European Civil Protection Team will also work with IOM staff
on the ground on the provision of assistance and logistics.

As the crisis in Libya continues, IOM is being made aware on a
daily basis of more and more migrant communities still inside the
country unable to get out with an increasing number of governments
appealing to the Organization to help evacuate their nationals from
inside Libya.

In an impassioned plea to IOM, an African migrant told the
Organization that between 6,000 -10,000 migrants were trapped in
Khomees. They included West Africans, Chinese, Filipinos and among
them were families and pregnant women. Stores were running out of
food, people were increasingly getting sick and fear of
repercussions against foreigners meant that they were too afraid to
step out of doors. 

Other groups of Filipinos, Vietnamese, Sri Lankans, Nepalese as
well as Sub-Saharan Africans are stranded in large numbers in Sirt,
Tripoli, Wazem and Misrata as well as elsewhere. Many are without
documents and passports which had been taken by their
employers.

Meanwhile, with almost 200,000 migrants now have crossed into
Tunisia, Egypt and Niger, IOM's evacuation efforts out of Tunisia
and Egypt are continuing today.

Nine flights, provided by the British government and UNHCR,
carrying nearly 1,700 people will today be flying from Djerba to
Cairo.

The evacuation of large numbers of Egyptian migrants who have
arrived in the past 10 days into Tunisia will be further bolstered
by the provision to IOM by the French government of two planes
which will in the next five days help return 2,250 stranded
Egyptians home.

For further information, please contact:

In Ras Adjir/Djerba, Tunisia, Jean Philippe Chauzy, Tel: + 41 79
285 4366, E-mail: "mailto:pchauzy@iom.int">pchauzy@iom.int

In Alexandria/Salum, Egypt, Chris Lom in Egypt, Tel: +
20101761.308. E-mail: "mailto:clom@iom.int">clom@iom.int

In Geneva, Switzerland, Jemini Pandya, Tel: + 41 22 717 9486/+41
79 217 3374, E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int