Fleeing foreign workers pushed onto Italian shores

Dubai: There is evidence to show that the regime of Muammar Gaddafi is channelling foreign workers leaving Libya into Italy instead of letting them return home. This explains the decline in foreign workers leaving the troubled country through its border with Tunisia in Ras Ajdir.

Adel Al Sirte, a member of the revolutionary forces from the city of Sirte, told Gulf News that Gaddafi seemed to be playing yet another dirty trick on the EU. The revolutionaries had collected evidence to show the new policy was meant to create a flow of illegal immigrants into Europe, he added.

"Foreign workers who opt to leave Libya from its western borders with Tunisia due to the revolution are now returned to a small port on the sea between Tunisia and Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa, where immigrants tend to embark and seek refugee status in Italy," he said.

Last month, Italian ministers had warned that the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya could spark an exodus of foreigners through the Mediterranean.

"Gaddafi is trying to warn Europe about the consequences of his collapse and the impact on Italy and the EU," Al Sirte said.

The Transitional National Council has collected evidence about the game Gaddafi is playing right now with Europe. The council is negotiating the situation with a number of EU diplomats and would offer the information it has to its EU counterparts.

On Monday, more than 1,000 illegal immigrants escaping political turmoil in North Africa arrived on the southern Italian island in the Mediterranean.

The immigrants, most of them from Tunisia, arrived in more than 10 boats.

Some of the boats made it to the shores of the tiny island on their own but others were intercepted by the Coast Guard and their passengers taken off.

From Lampedusa, immigrants are sent by plane to holding centres on the mainland but the backlog is beginning to grow. So far, none of the immigrants were believed to have left from Libya itself but Italian officials fear an exodus from its former colony if the situation worsens. Tens of thousands have fled violence in Libya and crossed the border to Tunisia since the uprising against Gaddafi began.