Libya unrest sparks refugee crisis at Tunisia border
A UN refugee official told the BBC that 20,000 Egyptians were stranded and needed food and shelter. Many are sleeping in the open despite the cold.
Some Egyptian refugees staged protests shouting: "We want to go home."
About 100,000 people have fled anti-government unrest in Libya over the past week, the UN estimates.
The BBC's Jim Muir at the Ras Jdir border crossing with Tunisia says the exodus of Egyptian workers from western Libya began on Wednesday, but has been intensifying daily since then.
Liz Eyster of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) told the BBC that Tunisian authorities were no longer able to cope with the influx.
"They've been accommodating people in shelters, schools and places of their own. But we're now aware of the fact that they're very much stretched and they need the support of the international community."
Monji Slim, the local representative of the Red Crescent, told AFP news agency: "It is a humanitarian crisis, our capacities to take in people are exhausted. The entire world should mobilise to help Egypt repatriate its nationals."
About 7,000 Egyptians have already been evacuated by air, but Ms Eyster said there was a "bottleneck in getting the Egyptians back home".
One stranded refugee said: "All the people here are demonstrating because they want to go to Egypt. All countries are sending aircraft to rescue their people - Turkey, Korea, India, Bangladesh - everyone is arriving and leaving except for Egyptians."
A number of countries have been evacuating foreigners by air and sea.
On Sunday a Greek ship carrying hundreds of migrants - mainly from Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain - docked at the port of Piraeus near Athens; Kazinform cites BBC News.
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