An additional 184 Vietnamese workers landed at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on August 10, bringing the total number of Vietnamese workers returning from Libya to 453.

Among the returnees, 29 were working in Tripoli and Benghazi cities where fierce clashes have erupted for the past few weeks.

The 184 returnees are out of 682 workers that the Vietnam Manpower Supply and Commercial Joint Stock Company (Vinamex) supplied to Huyndai Amco contractor of the Republic of Korea.

These workers expected to take Egyptian and Vietnam Airlines flights to fly home from August 7-10, however, difficulty in Libya’s flying procedures had affected the evacuation plan.

A Vinamex representative said the company would provide each returnee with VND1 million worth of financial aid to come home.

A Huyndai Amco representative said the company would prioritise recruiting these workers to work for its projects in Egypt and several other countries in the future.

The evacuation plan for the 682 Vietnamese workers was jointly implemented by Huyndai Amco, Vietnam Airlines, Vinamex and the Vietnamese embassy in Egypt.

These Vietnamese nationals were working for the ‘2.000 Housing Project’ in Al-Qubbah town of Al-Beida city, east of Libya, about 200km from Benghazi city.

On August 9, two Libyan Airlines charter flights left Misrata airport for Cairo international airport in Egypt, carrying 182 workers.

Libyan Airlines plans to conduct 4 flights on August 10 and another 2 on August 11 to bring the remaining number of Vietnamese workers to Cairo.

Vietnam Airlines will mobilise Airbus 330-200 and Boeing 777-200 aircraft to take the workers directly to Hanoi from Cairo on August 10-11.

Vietnam speeds up exodus of workers from Libya

The Vietnamese Embassy in Egypt and Seoul-based Huyndai Amco on August 9 stepped up the evacuation of 682 Vietnamese guest workers from Libya, chartering flights to remove them safely to the homeland via Egypt.

The workers were employed on a Korean housing project in Al-Qubbah town, Al-Beida city in the east of Libya forced to shut down amid the growing turmoil and violence engulfing the country.   

Two Libyan Airlines flights carrying 184 guest workers are scheduled to take off at Misrata airport and land at Cairo international airport at 11:45 am and 17:45 pm while a Vietnam Airlines flight is set to land at Cairo airport at 21:00 pm to collect the workers, returning to Hanoi at 23:00 pm on August 9.

In addition, Libyan Airlines is mobilising four flights to carry some 360 Vietnamese guest workers on August 10 and two flights to transport the remainder  from Libya to Cairo on August 11.

Vietnam Airlines is also conducting two direct flights from Cairo to Hanoi on August 10-11 to move the remaining workers home.

To prepare for the evacuation, Huyndai Amco sent three officials to Egypt to learn about the situation a week ago. Vietnam Airlines also dispatched ten officials from its representative offices in Europe to Egypt to resolve technical issues and get a permit to fly through ten nations’ airspace. Vinaconex also sent two leaders to co-ordinate with relevant agencies to evacuate these workers

Meanwhile, the Vietnamese Embassy in Egypt and other diplomatic agencies in Cairo are mobilising all available human resources to support the Korean contractors and labour companies in resolving legal and administrative formalities to evacuate Vietnamese citizens home as quickly as possible.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Libya said that companies have drawn up plans to evacuate around 1,050 out of 1,550 Vietnamese guest workers out of the North African nation.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thanh Hoa chaired a meeting in Hanoi on August 8 with 11 businesses that sent labourers to Libya.

The Deputy Minister asked businesses to take all necessary measures to bring the guest workers home safely . The Ministry of Labour Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) on August 9 sent a delegation to Tunisia and Libya to coordinate the return of the workers.

At noon on August 8, VTC Corp’s 24 workers arrived in Vietnam from Turkey. As of the end of August 8, 240 workers had returned home and 25 more are on the way home. 

VNA/VOV/VNN