Vietnam is considering the possibility of hiring military vessels or aircrafts
to save Vietnamese workers who are stuck in Libya, said Minister of Labor, War
Invalids and Social Affair Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

On February 28, three working groups were sent to Egypt, Tunisia
and Turkey
to assist Vietnamese workers.

The same day, a Vietnam Airline flight carrying 8 tons of
cooking left from Vietnam to Cairo, Egypt.
The food will be transported to the border, where thousands of Vietnamese are
waiting for transit.

By the afternoon of February 28, around 1000 Vietnamese
workers arrived in Vietnam.
Over 4,600 were evacuated to other countries, including over 1000 at Benghazi
port, waiting for ships to go to Malta, Turkey and Greece, 300 others at the
Libya-Egypt border, around 700 on the move to the border of Tunisia and Algeria
and the remaining at the airport and seaports of Tripoli.

Many foreign employers have left Tripoli, leaving Vietnamese workers there.
Minister Ngan said that Vietnam
may hire military ships or helicopters to bring Vietnamese from Tripoli to Tunisia
and Egypt.

According to the Department for Management of Overseas
Vietnamese Labor, around 2000 Vietnamese are now in Benghazi
and some eastern cities of Libya.
They can buy food now after protesters formed the provisional government.

Earlier, Vietnam
set up a steering board chaired by Deputy PM Pham Gia Khiem and Minister of
Labor Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to help Vietnamese in the Middle East and North Africa.

The board sent five working groups to five countries near Libya – Tunisia,
Malta, Turkey, Egypt,
and Greece.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has
also called on the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to give
assistance to Vietnamese workers who are still stuck in Libya.

The Department for Management of Overseas Labor met with
representatives of the IOM in Hanoi last
weekend, to appeal to the organization to help Vietnamese workers who are still
in Libya
or stranded in neighboring countries after evacuation.

Such migrant workers have been notified of addresses and
telephone numbers of IOM offices for contact in case of need.

Five years ago, IOM was very willing to assist Vietnam in evacuating nearly 200 Vietnamese
workers from Lebanon when it
came under military attack from Israel.

The Department for Management of Overseas Labor expected
that the total number of Vietnamese workers to be evacuated from Libya by March
2 will amount to more than 7,400.

Over 10,000 Vietnamese were working in Libya when the
political crisis took place.

PV