BRITISH PRIME minister David Cameron, whose suggestion of a no-fly zone over Libya has received little backing from the United States and other allies, has ordered an airlift of Egyptian refugees stranded inside the Tunisian border.
“We will go on doing everything we can to ease the problems at the border and to make sure that this emergency does not turn into a crisis,” Mr Cameron said in the House of Commons. Conservative MPs have privately expressed concern that Mr Cameron has displayed inexperience by calling for a no-fly zone before getting the agreement of other world leaders.
Defending his handling of events, Mr Cameron said the British government had evacuated British citizens and “put every available pressure on the Libyan regime” through travel bans, asset freezes and arms embargos.
He said world leaders had to “prepare for all eventualities”, including a no-fly zone, if Col Muammar Gadafy “unleashes more things on his own people”.
Listing the aid that has already been sent to help the refugees, Mr Cameron said he was “delighted” Irishman John Ging, who he said had done “excellent work” in Palestine for the United Nations, had been put in charge of the UN relief effort on the Tunisian border.
“We will go on doing everything we can to ease the problems at the border and to make sure that this emergency does not turn into a crisis,” Mr Cameron said.
Two chartered aircraft left Britain, while a third left from Italy, to fly 6,000 Egyptian refugees to Cairo over the coming days: “These people shouldn’t be kept in transit camps if it is possible to take them back to their home,” he said.