Expats from Libya say the government abandoned them

354 evacuated workers flown back by Turkish employers reach Lahore from Libya.

LAHORE: Expatriate Pakistanis returning from Libya on Tuesday said that the Pakistan government had abandoned them and provided no assistance in rescuing them.

A total of 354 evacuated expatriates from Libya arrived in Lahore via Istanbul in two chartered flights of the Turkish Airlines on Tuesday morning. The first flight carrying 174 Pakistanis reached Lahore early in the morning while the second carrying 180 passengers reached the Lahore airport at 9.30am.

All the returning Pakistanis were labourers working in Libya. They were received at the airport by Lahore district coordination officer (DCO) Ahad Cheema.

“Most of the labourers’ families were unaware of their arrival and few of them have families residing in the city,” Cheema told reporters outside the airport.

The expats were happy to have returned home safely but expressed anger at the government as well as embassy officials in Libya. They told reporters that the government had not bothered to provide them with any support.

“We tried our best to get in touch with embassy officials in Libya but they never responded” said expat Shehzad Saeed.

“We had only begun working for a Turkish company Sazai Turks Fazai Araya (STFA) a few weeks ago,” Saeed said, adding “We felt extremely helpless because our embassy didn’t bother to call us back.” Saeed said that if the company didn’t provide its workers with food in their camps they would have died of hunger. “There are still thousands of Pakistanis in Libya waiting for their government to rescue them but the government doesn’t seem at all concerned,” he added.

Muhammad Rafiq, a cook at the camp, told The Express Tribune “during the past week we started taking our meals twice a day rather than three times because there was a food shortage.” Rafiq said. “The first time one our colleagues managed to get through to the embassy they hung up on him,” he said.

“Libyan Army tanks were out in several areas and several people who joined protests against the president were killed,” Muhamad Saleem said. Saleem said that they had also been robbed. He said that several locals had stolen their money and cell phones but the situation was so chaotic that they couldn’t approach the police. “We haven’t spoken to our families in over a week because our cell phones were stolen,” Saleem said.

Saleem said that when the group finally managed to reach Tripoli airport the building was crowded with thousands of people waiting to depart to their countries on a limited number of flights. “We stayed there for almost 36 hours with no food and no place to go.

Turkish officials kept asking us why our government wasn’t helping us,” he said.

Saleem said that his family still didn’t know he had returned home. A-Z Engineering Company owner Syed Haris Ali eventually brokered an arrangement with the Turkish company to send the Pakistani workers to Pakistan. “We got back through our own efforts. The government didn’t help at all,” Saleem said.

He said all the arrangements were made by Turkish company STFA.

Ali said that the returning expats were provided with $250 each when they departed for Lahore from Istanbul. “They haven’t been charged any fare. The expenses were borne by STFA,” he said. City District Government Lahore (CDGL) had arranged five coaster buses and five APV vans for them. Lahore DCO Ahad Cheema said that the government had arranged the transport for the people to their homes. “These coasters will drop them to their respective cities free-of-cost,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2011.