Greece offers to evacuate up to 15,000 Chinese nationals from Libya
By Nicholas Paphitis (CP) 9 hours ago
ATHENS, Greece Greece will evacuate up to 15,000 Chinese nationals by ship from Libya, and is considering requests from other countries to help ferry out their nationals, officials said Tuesday.
The Chinese would be transferred by ferries to the southern Greek island of Crete before being flown on to China, a Public Order Ministry statement said. Officials were unable to provide a time schedule for the evacuation.
"The Chinese government has chartered three Greek ships that will go to Libya to repatriate 13,000-15,000 Chinese, as well as the Greeks in Benghazi," Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras said.
The Public Order Ministry said it was examining requests for help from other countries.
"We are considering ... the requests for assistance by other countries to evacuate their nationals from the area," the ministry said in a statement.
Egypt has also asked for the help of Greek ships to ferry its nationals from Tripoli to the Egyptian port of Alexandria, the statement said.
Another Greek merchant ship is expected to evacuate some of the 300 Greek nationals from the port of Ra's Lanuf Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said, while two military transport planes are also on standby at a base near Athens.
"The ship will take some Greeks and, if possible, a few Europeans," Delavekouras said. "It has a small capacity, as it is a merchant vessel, not a ferry. The planes are on standby, and have not yet received landing permission, to pick up the other Greeks," he said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Dollis said the government is hoping to use four Libyan airports for the possible air evacuation, with Greeks stranded up to 350 kilometres (220 miles) from each airport.
"The situation is very variable and our basic issue is who is in control of what in the country so that our landing and overflight requests are answered," Dollis said. "We have to try 15-20 times just to get through on the phone and we have multiple calls to make to a large number of people."
. hopefully, the good relationship can last for ever so people from both side of countries can benefit from 
