The British-funded sea evacuation of trapped migrant workers and wounded from the besieged town of Misurata will take at least a fortnight leaving thousands in danger of heavy shelling from Gaddafi forces, officials said.
Mohammed Muftah, 9, injured by shrapnel in Misrata last week, arrives onboard the Greek ferry 'Ionian Spirit' in the port of Benghazi Photo: REUTERS
By Ben Farmer, Benghazi 6:56PM BST 19 Apr 2011
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The trapped labourers from Africa and south Asia are short of food and water and have lived in tents for nearly two months in an area often hit by Col Muammar Gaddafi's artillery.
The British government is paying £1.5 million to fund an evacuation by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which has chartered a Greek car ferry to remove people from the Ghasr Ahmad docks.
The Ionian Spirit has already made two runs from Benghazi, carrying out about 1,000 refugees each time. Another 5,000 are still awaiting evacuation.
A spokeswoman for the IOM said the current crew could only make one more voyage and the organisation was also looking for a larger vessel.
"We would like a bigger ship, but it's not going to be possible to get one at the moment," she said.
With each return voyage taking three days, at the current rate, evacuation would take at least a fortnight.
Doctors in Misurata estimate at least 600 have died and 3,000 have been wounded as the city has held out for more than 50 days against Libyan regime artillery and troops.
The most recent evacuation delivered hundreds of Ghanaians as well as dozens of recently wounded Libyans from the town's overstretched hospitals.
As the wounded were divided among Benghazi's hospitals, they told The Daily Telegraph that shelling in Libya's third largest city had made it impossible for civilians to leave their homes.
Mohammed Muftar, 9, suffered a smashed jaw and badly cut face when shrapnel from a mortar hit him as he played with his friend next door in the Karzaz suburb.
"There's no place safe there. We can't go out of the house, everything is closed and there's a lack of food," said his father, Bashir, 44, who had accompanied his son, but had to leave his wife and other children with his brother.
Adbul Razzak Salim al Sreti, a 29-year-old revolutionary fighter who lay in agony from shrapnel blast wounds in his left side, said he had also had to leave his family, who moved constantly in fear of rocket attacks.
He said: "They move from house to house everyday, because they don't feel safe. The rockets land randomly. Everyday the city is getting hit. Even the hospital is getting hit."
The British evacuation is reserved for migrant workers and the badly wounded. Misurata's other fleeing residents must gain passage on one of the small fleet of fishing ships sailing 250 miles from Benghazi.
Several evacuees on such a vessel said their families had been cut in two as the front line divided the city of 500,000.
Ehsan el Mahadini, 24, said his wife had travelled to visit her family in Misurata a week before the uprising and he had not seen her or his two young children since.
He had taken a fishing boat from Benghazi to try and reach her, but had returned after nearly three weeks having been unable to find her across the front line.
Another man, who gave his name only as Bashir because his family were still in Gaddafi-controlled territory, said he had been separated from his family for 25 days.
He had taken two sons for a routine dialysis appointment at Misurata's main hospital when fighting had suddenly cut off his house in the Toomina suburb.
"The situation there is terrible, it's random attacks," he said. "My family don't even know if I'm alive or dead."
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