Black smoke billows over the skyline as a fire at the oil depot for the airport rages out of control after being struck in the crossfire of warring militias battling for control of the airfield, in Tripoli, Libya on July 28, 2014.
Another special Air India flight will leave tomorrow for Djerba in Tunisia to bring back 216 Indian nationals, who have crossed over there from strife-torn Libya.
With the fresh batch of 216, the total number of Indians who would have come back from Libya by this weekend would be about 1500, leaving 3000 registered Indian nationals still in the conflict-hit country, the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.
Out of 1500 Indians, private companies facilitated departure of 450 Indian workers employed with them.
Apart from taking a slew of measures to facilitate the departure of Indians in Libya, which is witnessing stepped up violence, the Ministry has issued a number of advisories asking Indians to leave the conflict-hit country and not to travel there.
Prior to the uprising in Libya, the number of Indians there was estimated to be more than 18,000.
The Indian professionals were mainly employed in hospitals and other teaching institutions whereas a major part of manpower was engaged in construction projects. During the course of the revolution, most of them were evacuated to India in February-March 2011.
Few hundred Indians continued to serve in Libya even during the revolution period. Gradually, more Indians have returned to Libya and there were about 4500 registered Indians before the outbreak of fresh violence there.
An estimated unregistered 1000 or more Indians are also expected to be there, according to officials. The demand of medical professionals and nurses in Libya is growing.
Owing to the uncertain situation, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) had suspended grant of emigration clearance to ECR category till June 30, 2014.