The British government has vowed to send “as many planes as necessary” to rescue British nationals trapped in Libya.
Nearly 3,500 Britons are thought to have left Libya since the crisis started. But around 300 British nationals are believed to be trapped in the immediate Tripoli area while a further170, mainly oil workers, are stranded in the desert after commercial airlines cancelled scheduled flights.
“We will send as many planes as necessary to bring home British nationals,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.
“Our preference clearly is for people to leave on commercial flights as they have been doing, or on our specially arranged charter flights as they will now be able to do, rather than to send in military flights without permission, which is obviously riskier for the safety of all those involved, although we don’t by any means rule out doing that.”
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Labour have been critical of the government’s tardiness in organising an evacuation plan for British Nationals. They compared the UK’s efforts with France, Portugal, Russia and Austria who have already managed to get charter flights into Libya.
Speaking at a press conference in Qatar The Prime Minister David Cameron said: “In Libya the situation remains gravely concerning. We are doing everything that we can to protect British nationals and to assist them in leaving that country.”
“We stand by to help in any way that we can, whether that is through ships, whether that is through chartering aeroplanes. The crisis centre at the Foreign Office is working round the clock to make sure we bring people home safely and that we deliver them back to our shores.”
There are fears further violence could kick off after Colonel Gaddafi vowed to fight to the death and called for his opponents to be defeated.
