High winds, rough seas hamper Libyan evacuations
The Americans and others have been waiting aboard the Maria Dolores at Tripoli's As-shahab port since Wednesday.
The US State Department said in a tweet that 167 US citizens and 118 citizens of other countries were on the ferry.
Tens of thousands of foreigners are trying to flee the chaos in Libya with Americans, Turks and Chinese climbing aboard ships, Europeans mostly boarding evacuation flights and North Africans racing to border crossings in overcrowded vans. European countries scrambled to send more ships and military planes to the North African nation and Britain mulled whether to send in its military to rescue stranded oil workers.
Four Turkish military cargo planes brought more than 400 Turks from Tripoli home Friday morning, the Foreign Ministry said. Turkey has so far evacuated nearly 8,000 of its 25,000-30,000 citizens, most of whom work in construction projects in Libya. Around 200 Turkish firms operate in Libya.
"We have asked companies who are not facing an imminent danger not to evacuate their workers from Libya," Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told ATV television in an interview on Thursday night. "But if they are in danger, then we will arrange transfer for them to airports or ports and take them."
Two Greek ships braved churning seas Thursday to whisk some 4,500 Chinese workers away from Libya to the island of Crete. Up to 15,000 Chinese - about half the number of Chinese working in Libya on construction and oil projects - are expected to arrive by ferry in Crete and fly home on chartered flights; Kazinform cites Arab News.
See www.arabnews.com for full version
