Govt mulls chartered flights for Libya rescue

KATHMANDU, March 7: As rescuing the remaining Nepali migrant workers stranded in Libya´s strife-torn cities of Tripoli and Misrata by regular flights becomes increasingly difficult, the government is gearing up to bring them back by a chartered aircraft.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has initiated a process to charter a Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) plane for evacuating some 100 Nepali workers still stuck in Libya.


"The plan is already afoot to charter an aircraft," said foreign secretary Madan Bhattarai. This is the first time that the government has decided to charter a plane to rescue workers from Libya. All the workers rescued earlier were brought to Kathmandu by regular flights.

Upon MoFA´s request, the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) has already started the process for obtaining route permissions from the countries over which the chartered plane will fly during the rescue mission. According to MoTCA secretary Kishor Thapa, the chartered aircraft will cost up to Rs 30 million.

According to the MoFA officials, the Libyan authorities do not allow private aircrafts to land in their country for evacuating migrant workers. The government, therefore, have no options but to charter the national flag carrier. However, with one of the only two Boeing planes of NAC grounded for long, the officials at the MoFA and the MoTCA have found it a bit difficult to charter the national flag carrier.

"While one NAC plane is grounded, the other is engaged in regular flights," said an official at the MoTCA. "However, we expect to sort it out within a few days." A single chartered flight is enough to rescue all remaining workers as both NAC Boeing crafts possess a capacity of 192 passenger seats.

According to Tirtha Aryal, the first secretary at the Nepali embassy in Egypt, who has been actively involved in the whole evacuation drive, only 108 Nepali migrant workers are left in Libya -- 74 in Tripoli and 41 in Misrata. They have failed to reach Tunisia and Egypt so far even though hundreds others managed to escape the ongoing turmoil.

The government decided to charter an aircraft following the reports of attacks on Nepali migrant workers fleeing Libya. Recently, two groups of Nepali workers traveling by bus on their way to Tunisia´s Ras Jdir were robbed of their belongings, forcing the government to ask remaining workers to avoid buses.

"Regular flights to and from Libya are disrupted. And, reaching Egypt and Tunisia by bus is fraught with risks so we must charter a plane to rescue the Nepali workers," Aryal said. Aryal, however, added, the government can drop the plan if the ongoing violent clashes in Libya stop in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, the first group of 249 Nepalis rescued by Shino Hydro Company of China from Ghat area of Libya arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday. They were taken to Sudan by a plane chartered by the Chinese company. Other two groups of Nepali workers are expected to return from Sudan by Monday.

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