Libya - Latest Updates ( Archived) (926)

IMPORTANT NOTICE - American aircraft have been refused permission to land in Libya and two Catamarans are to leave Malta later today to attempt to pick up U.S. Citizens. The two high-speed ferries which take an average of 400 passengers each are to leave Valletta Harbor early afternoon on to Libya.

If you know or are in contact with any americans in Libya please advise them to head to As-shahab Port immediately. The State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs is advising that persons wishin to board should be there possibly after 9 a.m. and no later than 10 a.m. However since the ferries will leave in the afternoon, people can still make it.

The State Department said boarding the vessels would be on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to those with medical emergencies or severe medical conditions.

Travellers would be allowed one suitcase and one small carry-on item. Those who want be evacuated should be prepared to wait several hours and take food, water and other necessities to the pier, which is on the sea road across from the Radisson Blu Mahari Hotel in Tripoli.

Assuming the ferries are allowed to dock and to subsequently leave, they will head back to Valletta harbor where flights to other countries may be arranged.

I hope the ferries are allowed to dock in Libya. I've been on those from Malta to Sicily, very nice and 2 should be able to do the job.

Yep they're pretty nice boats, though in the circumstances I suppose one would jump on to anything to get out of there alive!

True enough, the refugees have been doing that for years. Does Malta still have a large refugee presence? When I was living there it was pretty high.

On the same topic of Evacuation, American Citizens are obviously not the only ones who need to be pulled out of Libya but they are for political reasons finding the most difficulties.

Malta alone estimates around 300 to 500 Maltese there while several thousand E.U. Citizens are also present. Tripoli Airport is still functioning though with serious difficulties both due to hte large exodus and to lack of personnel have either not showed up or abandoned their posts. As I advised in another post Air Malta has already operated 2 flights out of Tripoli carrying close to 400 passangers. Requests by the airline to operate 5 extra chartered flights have so far been refused by Libyan authorities but aapparently this afternoon 1 extra flight in addition to the daily scheduled one may be squeezed in.

Also, a number of European countries are sending planes to Malta in order to assist in evacuating their citizens. A German military transport aircraft last night performed its first evacuation flights while another flight was also performed by an Austrian air force Hercules, which has been in Malta for some days. Irish aircraft have arrived for the same purpose and a British Royal Air Force Hercules is expected in Malta later today.

In the mean time however, reports in the media of a Libyan warship off the coast of Malta remain unclear. While Al Jazeera reported yesterday that an unidentified Libyan vessel was present off the Maltese coastline, the Armed Forces of Malta have denied such reports and also denied it was monitoring any such vessel.

However Rai (the Italian national TV) and some international news agencies have reported that two Libyan warships have arrived in Malta carrying defectors today and had berthed in Valletta.

No local confirmation or denial is yet available, though other "Informed sources" said however that there was Italian naval and military activitity some 25 miles south of Malta.

That would be a good sign that some of the military aren't playing the "kill innocent civillians" game. I hope it's factual and all joking aside, I think having those 2 fighter jets show up was really great.