61 Indonesians still in Libya

Some 61 Indonesian nationals are still in crisis-ridden Libya, but they are safe, the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Monday.

“The 61 include Indonesian embassy staffers, college students and migrant workers. They are scattered in several locations because those in Tripoli and around the capital have been evacuated,” ministry spokesman Michael Tene said, as quoted by kompas.com.

He added that the ministry was still trying to locate Indonesian citizens who are not registered with the embassy.

According to Michael, some 809 Indonesian nationals have fled Libya since the conflicts arose. Michael said 489 Indonesian citizens were evacuated using two flights from Libya to Tunisia. Of that number, 229 have arrived in Indonesia and 260 are still in the Indonesian embassy in Tunisia.

“We have evacuated 489 Indonesians; 34 are still in the border areas, 92 were evacuated by individual efforts and some 194 had left Libya before the crisis,” he added.

An evacuation team is still working to evacuate more Indonesian nationals from Libya. The government, he said, is looking to evacuate as many of them as possible.

However, not all Indonesians will leave Libya, Michael said, adding that a number of students and migrant workers have chosen to stay in Tunisia while waiting for the situation in Libya to return back to normal.