Operation: Liberation Libya

[More Images]

RELATED ARTICLES: Fleeing Libya workers could hit Bangladesh economy | In Video: Workers flee Libya | AECOM bails out of Libya, withdraws staff

"I would say the situation in Egypt is normal. Libya, now that’s another matter,” a spokesman for a truck manufacturer told PMV over a coffee last month. “We flew our people out as soon as possible.”

It was a calm conversation and a million miles away from the chaos tearing Libya apart. As the shamal of protest that spread across North Africa last month hit the country and turned into first, a violent protest, and then a civil war, the construction machinery industry faced up to the challenge of having to react and react quickly.

It is only a matter of months ago that the industry was hailing $100 billion worth of business in Libya, with the prospect of much of it going to GCC companies or companies controlling their North African operations from offices in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

Suddenly as the protests swept over from the eastern borders of Egypt, plans for company expansion became a panicked effort for evacuation.

Amid a chaotic few days, the infrastructure and construction that was re-building the country was in tatters, machines lay derelict and, worst still, workers, plant managers and operators were caught up in a conflict that wasn’t their own, and with many struggling to escape to safety.

According to the UN, at least 20,000 Chinese, 15,000 Turks and 1,400 Italians were evacuated from Libya by land, sea and air.

Many escaped by chartered boat to Malta, Greece and Italy, while hundreds of other foreigners, including Egyptians, Iraqis and Syrians, fled Libya into Algeria through the Sahara Desert. Despite those efforts, many migrant workers from poorer countries in South East Asia and West Africa were left stranded in Libya.

Migrante International, a support group for overseas Filipino workers, said Filipinos had been “abandoned in workers’ camps in Libya to fend for themselves that many of them by their foreign employers”.

Indian, Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh nationals were also stranded in the port of the eastern city of Benghazi without passports or cash, and little hope for escape.

In some cases, workers remained on sites without power or water. One Bangladeshi worker told news agency AFP that he and 17 other workers were trapped inside a desert work site after their employers had abandoned them.

“They shoot people on sight, it’s not safe to go out. We don’t have food and money. We are almost starving. Nobody can imagine how dangerous the situation is. They told us we would have to find our own way out of the country,” he said.