Some 136 Egyptians returned Wednesday morning from Libya via an EgyptAir flight through Djerba airport in Tunisia, and 160 others arrived through the Sallum border crossing.
A wave of Egyptians have returned from Libya since the release in mid-February of a video showing the beheading of 20 Egyptian Copts by the hands of the Libyan branch of the Islamic State (IS) group in Sirte city. Egyptian airstrikes against IS locations in Libya’s Derna, close the Western borders with Egypt, followed the video’s release.
On March 15, the number of arrivals was announced by airport authorities to have reached 11, 2779 passengers on board 48 flights since the beginning of the crisis last month.
Since the release of the video, the Egyptian government announced ongoing coordination with authorities in Tunisia and Algeria in order to facilitate Egyptians’ return through the borders between both countries and Libya.
The government has also announced it would waive all fees for Egyptians coming from Libya via the Sallum border crossing for three months and until the end of the crisis, according to a release published on Feb. 27 by the State Information Services (SIS.)
The number of Egyptians returned from Libya in 2011 reached 170,000 and in 2014 reached 72,745, according to the Ministry of Manpower.
