Around 5000 people are stranded on the Libyan border, hoping to enter Egypt via the Salloum crossing, after their embassies “gave up on them”.
Mostly Bangladeshi or Sudanese, they called on international organizations including the UN to help them return to their countries.
Two Bangladeshis have died there. One had gone on a hunger strike because he was denied passage through Salloum. He was not carrying personal identification and the Bangladeshi embassy has not sent a representative to identify him, security sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm. The second died of tuberculosis despite receiving medical help at the field hospital set up there, said sources who asked to remain anonymous.
Stranded people are contracting diseases due to a lack of hygiene and the piling up of waste.
Sudanese nationals have severely criticized their embassies in Cairo, saying nobody wants to help South Sudanese since south Sudan's recent succession.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Libyan families have traveled to Cairo. Mostly from Tobruk, Mesrata and Al-Zawya, many men said they came to leave their children and wives in Cairo–where they said it is safe– before returning to continue their fight against Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
