Italy to help Libyan refugees in Tunisia

ROME, March 3 (UPI) -- Italian ministers Thursday approved a mission to assist refugee efforts on the Libyan-Tunisia border and help stranded Egyptians return home, officials said.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the Cabinet approved the mission that will help tackle a "real emergency" of an estimated 120,000 to 140,000 displaced Libyans caught in the fighting between anti-government protesters and leader Moammar Gaddafi's forces, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

He stressed the mission came after an "explicit request from the Tunisian and Egyptian governments to help the safe repatriation of their citizens fleeing Libya."

Planes will fly Egyptians from the island of Djerba, off the Tunisian coast, to Cairo and ships will take them from Zarzis, also in Tunisia, to Alexandria, Egypt, Frattini said.

The chief aim of the mission is to improve conditions at a burgeoning refugee camp on the Libyan-Tunisian border run by the United Nations' refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration, Frattini said.

Italy will provide food, medical care and personal assistance to refugees, the minister said, because "many people don't even have clothes anymore."

Once the emergency phase is complete, Italian civilian and merchant ships and planes will help get Egyptians back to their country, Frattini said.