Nearly 3,000 Thai workers from Libya have returned home

BANGKOK, March 4 (TNA) - The number of Thai workers who have left riot-torn Libya and returned to Thailand has reached nearly 3,000, from more than 8,300 Thai nationals who have been evacuated from Libya to safe places.

Friday morning, 56 more Thai workers from Libya arrived at Thailand's main Suvarnabhumi International Airport and 46 more Thai people from the troubled North African nation are scheduled to arrive in Bangkok Friday evening. Consequently, the number of Thai workers who have been evacuated from Libya and arrived in Thailand will then total 2,998. So far, 8,386 Thai workers have been evacuated from Libya to safe places.

A ship the Thai government has chartered to pick up some 2,011 Thai workers from Tripoli, Libya's capital, has already arrived in nearby Tunisia. The ship will return to Tripoli to evacuate 2,000 more Thai workers to Tunisia tonight.

Meanwhile, the Thai Ministry of Labour convened representatives of some 30 private employment firms which sent Thai workers to Libya to review the number of Thai workers stranded at workplaces in Libya in order to arrange for their assistance through the Thai Embassy in Libya.

Latest media reports said, however, that Libyan authorities have planned to soon close the country's border passes. (TNA)