One of the biggest evacuation operations in history

25,000 Turkish nationals are expected to be evacuated from Libya, in one of the world’s biggest evacuation operations.

23 February 2011, 12:00am

On Tuesday two civilian ferries from Turkey arrived in Benghazi to evacuate about 3,000 Turkish citizens. The ferries arrived following the rejection of Turkey’s requests for extra flights from Tripoli airport, Turkey’s designated evacuation point.

Cemil Cicek, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister, said that if the country’s ferries are allowed to dock at Benghazi, six thousand people can be evacuated daily. Turkey has evacuated about 5,000 people via Tripoli airport so far.