In a huge rescue and evacuation operation Greece is sending ships to repatriate European and Chinese foreigners living in Libya, after requests by several countries. In a statement the Ministry of Civil Protection said that two ships are set to sail tonight and head to Tripoli in order to evacuate European citizens and transport them to safe Greek ports.
There has not be given details about the citizenship of the European foreigners, so far.
In addition, a big operation in under way to organize the evacuation of 15,000 Chinese employees from Libya. Commercial ships will carry the Chinese to the island of Crete, the closest Greek port to Libyan soil.
They are expected to arrive to Crete on Thursday (Feb 24), and remain on the island for a couple days until they can be flown to China. Cretalive.gr , the portal that revealed the story first, reported that the whole operation will take place through the city of Heraklion. The operation has been scheduled under request of Beijing.
Furthermore, Egypt has asked Greece to contribute ships in order to carry Egyptian citizens from Tripoli to the port of Alexandria.
Thousands of foreigners are trying to flee the chaos, the violence and the massacre of Libya as the state is collapsing and Muammar Gaddafi said in a televised delirium speech that “the enemies of Libya to be executed” and that he himself “will die as martyr.” During the recent days the official media of Libyan state claimed that foreigners had been arrested for trying to destabilize the country.
