Chaos, corruption and commotion at Tripoli – evacuees

Guns were fired and people were hit by security forces at Tripoli Airport over the past days, according to a Maltese man evacuated from Libya yesterday.

“Being stuck over there for the past 24 hours wasn’t much fun. Their idea of riot control is to start firing guns in the air, not caring whether there’s anybody around,” Martin Galea, returning from Libya on an Air Malta flight in the morning, said.

“Things seemed to calm down in the evening as they tried to round up people close to the departures area. They kicked us out, regardless of our race, nation or creed, and formed us up in queues. There is an interesting system of getting in if you don’t want to stand in the queues. I won’t go into too much detail on that one but it’s very, very typical. It’s a whole racket, everybody knows about it, but it works,” Mr Galea said.

It works so much that British consultant Carl Gonerson, who arrived in on a Royal Air Force Hercules, said he managed to be escorted by a guard for 500 dinars (€293). He thanked the British authorities for organising the flight on the military transport plane.

Not so Mr Galea, who sarcastically thanked the Maltese Embassy: “Very efficient. They don’t work in the evening and (gave us) absolutely no information. So, thanks very much for the Chargé d’Affaires who disappeared without giving us any information.

“We actually got more help from the British Commonwealth Office.”

Briton Tim Truscutt said the airport was “pure chaos”. He said he felt very lucky to be “at the right place at the right time” and to have spoken to the right people to get on the morning flight to Malta.

Similarly, a Libyan-Maltese man said Tripoli was an “absolute disaster”, with “shots being fired almost 24 hours a day”.

“I don’t know whether they were snipers or not... but they were real,” the man said soon after disembarking from Air Malta flight KM3741 from Tripoli, which was delayed by the heavy congestion at the airport.

“The plane was full to capacity. We even had to leave our luggage behind and I ended up taking care of a baby while on the flight.”

The flight also turned out to be “shockingly expensive”, according to his mother.

“Other countries were being provided with military planes to leave. During elections, they charge €25 for a flight to Malta from Australia but to save a life they charge €400,” the mother said, with tears in her eyes as she remembered her relatives in Libya.

Some 500 travellers trickled into the lounge as a fully-laden Jumbo Jet landed in the early afternoon, carrying employees from various companies that had instructed their staff to leave the country.

Malta International Airport had to handle planes that were diverted from Tripoli because of congestion there.

Sources said Air Afriqiyah 901 from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Air Afriqiyah 913 from Gatwick Airport, London, were unable to land in Tripoli so heavy was air traffic.