Irina Kuts had to leave her medical practice and house in Benghazi as the situation in Libya deteriorated further over the past months. Photos: Chris Sant Fournier

Irina Kuts, 54, realised she had to leave her Benghazi home when fear crept in that she could be killed for being a non-Muslim foreigner.

The Ukrainian doctor, who has lived in Libya for 20 years, was one of more than 800 passengers evacuated to Malta yesterday on board a merchant ship.

She had to leave Benghazi with her husband, also a doctor, after the Islamists overran Libya’s second city.

[attach id=360127 size="medium"]Inset, Irina Kuts had to leave her medical practice and house in Benghazi as the situation in Libya deteriorated further over the past months. Photos: Chris Sant Fournier[/attach]

Although the situation in Benghazi has grown calmer since the Islamists took over, Dr Kuts said a different sort of fear crept in, which she had not felt before.

“I could not sleep at night thinking that someone could jump into your house and kill you because you are a foreigner, or [follow] another religion,” she told Times of Malta after hugging her daughter and Maltese son-in-law, who were waiting at the Valletta sea terminal.

Dr Kuts said this was the first time she had feared for her life since the situation in Libya deteriorated. “My husband even stayed in Libya during the [2011] revolution to try to help these people,” she said, adding the situation would take years to improve.

Dr Kuts said Benghazi was more silent now compared with the previous three months when a

renegade secularist general, Khalifa Haftar, started his unilateral campaign against the Islamists in Benghazi.

Passengers line the decks of the MV Bridge in Grand Harbour yesterday.

‘Benghazi’s silent now that there is no fighting in city’

The military campaign, codenamed Operation Dignity, came to a crushing halt two weeks ago when Mr Haftar’s main base was overrun by a resurgent Islamist force.

“Benghazi is now under Sharia, al-Qaeda people… and it has become more silent now since there is no fighting inside the city,” Dr Kuts said, acknowledging that the situation in Benghazi was better than Tripoli because residents had electricity and water.

The three-month, anti-Islamist campaign left many civilians dead, injured or without a house, she added.

But the situation was not all rosy under the Islamists. Dr Kuts said the emergency hospital where her husband worked was closed down for three weeks after armed masked men from the Islamist militias kicked everybody out.

It took the intervention of the city’s elders to reach an agreement for the hospital to reopen. But a few days ago the principal medical store was blown up, she said.

There are no guarantees you will not be kidnapped... You’re on your own, whether on the street or at home

Asked whether she would return to Libya, Dr Kuts said she will only do so if the situation improved.

“I don’t wish anyone to go now because there are no guarantees you will not be kidnapped and there is no police or official government. You’re on your own, whether on the street or at home,” she said.

Her sentiments were echoed by Amal Mohammed Ramasha, a 64-year-old, who was also on the ship.

Her family holds Spanish citizenship and left Benghazi because it became unsafe to live there.

They could not leave their house out of fear that somebody would take it while they were out and travelling around the city became very difficult.

“I cry for Libya. Everything is bombed, they killed everybody.

“They are not Muslims... everybody [is] now far away from Benghazi,” she told waiting reporters.

The two women and their families were part of a group of 14 people who disembarked in Malta, including five Maltese nationals. The rest of the group, some 800 Filipino workers remained on board until they were driven to the airport in coaches to board two planes on a direct flight to the Philippines.

The ship, MV Bridge arrived in Malta at 11.15am after picking up evacuees from Benghazi and Misurata. The ship was chartered by the Philippine government.

The Foreign Ministry said the Maltese workers boarded the ship for free after an arrangement brokered between Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella and his Philippine counterpart Albert del Rosario.

The Bridge’s arrival followed that of the Virtù Ferries catamaran San Ġwann, which carried 302 Indian and Korean nationals. The trip was organised by Korean firm Daewoo.