Ghana refugees wait inside Tunisia-Libya border

At Ras Jdir on the Tunisia border, thousands of Bangladheshi migrant workers, desperate to leave Libya, pressed up against the gates of the frontier crossing, angry at their government for sending no help.

Groups of West African migrant workers also in the crowd chanted for help and held up the flags of Ghana and Nigeria.

About 70,000 people have passed through the Ras Jdir border post in the past two weeks, and many more of the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers in Libya are expected to follow.

Back in Accra, the second batch of Ghanaians stranded in Libya have arrived in Ghana with another planeload expected tomorrow. The 95 returnees arrived at the Kotoka International Airport on Tuesday evening. This brings to 150 the total number of Ghanaians that have been evacuated from Libya.

The repatriation became necessary due to increasing anti-government protests that have rocked the Maghrebian country in recent times. An estimated four thousand Ghanaians in the North African country have been registered out of the estimated 10,000 Ghanaians expected to be airlifted home. There has been enormous pressure from Ghanaians both home and abroad for Government to evacuate her citizenry following the political unrest in Libya.

Reports say over 2,000 people have been killed in the democratic uprising, a figure that has been disputed by the Libyan authorities.

Sources: Reuters, ghanaweb.com