New Delhi
24 February 2011
RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN and SRIDHAR KUMARASWAMI
Indian nationals wanting to return home from Libya will initially be evacuated by
sea from Benghazi to Alexandria in neighbouring Egypt. A chartered passenger ferry with
capacity to seat 1,200 persons is in Egypt and it was readying to sail to Benghazi with
ministry of external affairs (MEA) personnel and medical team on board. The vessel,
named Scotia Prince, is expected to reach Benghazi by February 27 and bring back at
least 1,200 Indians to Alexandria by March 1, from where they would be flown home by
special Air India flights.
New Delhi was working to obtain necessary clearances for air evacuation from Tripoli,
too. "Aircraft are on stand-by for this purpose. Libyan landing clearance is awaited and
should be received soon," the MEA said in a statement. Preparations were also being
made for evacuation of Indian nationals from smaller Libyan cities where air access was
possible, subject to Libyan clearance. It said that Indian companies, many of them
working in Libya for decades, had offered to work with the Indian embassy in Tripoli in
facilitating evacuation.
As first reported by this newspaper, India would extend help to some of its South Asian
neighbours to rescue their nationals from Libya. "We have arranged for our people to
join the Indian ship which aims to evacuate the Indian [nationals]," Sri Lankan foreign
employment minister Dilan Perera told journalists in Colombo Thursday. About 1,200 Sri
Lankans are estimated to be working in Libya.
The mammoth evacuation exercise will be reminiscent of India's successful operations
of rescuing not only its own nationals but also of its South Asian neighbours such as
Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, from Lebanon in 2006 after the Israel - Hezbollah war
broke out. The Indian Navy was then in the lead of "Operation Sukoon" to evacuate
people from Lebanon.
The Indian Navy was awaiting permission to join the rescue efforts. Three naval ships,
including INS Jalashwa (formerly USS Trenton), were on stand-by. All three are currently
deployed off the Western coast. The INS Jalashwa is a landing platform dock for
transportation of equipment and troops. It was acquired from the US Navy a few years
ago. It is considered ideal for evacuation operations as it accommodate 1,500 persons at
one time. The other two ships are destroyers (long-endurance warships meant for
escorting larger vessels in a fleet or battle group). The two destroyers can ferry up to
200 persons each at a time. Once permission is granted, the ships will take about 12
days to sail to Libya.
"Let me assure the nation that all Indians are safe and all those Indians who are willing
to be evacuated will be evacuated safely and without any expenditure incurred by them,"
external affairs minister SM Krishna told reporters outside Parliament. "We have
commissioned ships to move to Benghazi port," he said, adding that the first ship was
"approaching the port". Asked if there are plans for arranging aircraft for evacuation, Mr
Krishna said that the "flight situation is very uncertain, but we are closely monitoring the
developments".
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