SALLOUM: Terrified Egyptian migrant workers in Libya poured over the border by the thousands for the safety of home on Wednesday, fleeing the rebellion against Muammar Qaddafi’s regime.
Clutching their few belongings as they passed beneath the white concrete gateway that marks the frontier, they told of shooting in the eastern towns where they worked and the protection given them by protesters.
One man, who gave his name as Amr, told AFP he had seen "lots of gunfire … They definitely want us out," and while his family depends on his income in Libya, he intends never to return.
Another expatriate, Mohamed, who worked in Tobruk, the last major Libyan city on the highway that runs along the Mediterranean to Egypt, said protesters who had seized control there went out of the way to protect foreigners.
"Before the Libyans wanted to exploit us," he said, alluding to the 1.5 million Egyptians — among many other nationals from the developing world — on whom the oil-rich Libyan economy depends. "Now they wanted to help us."
Many of the Egyptians who spoke with AFP at dawn Wednesday came from southern Egypt, where jobs are few, poverty widespread and families dependent on the remittances sent from abroad.
One such worker, Mahmoud Aguni, in his 40s, said he did not get involved in the mass protests in Egypt that saw the downfall of longtime president Hosni Mubarak and inspired the Libyan uprising.
"But now we have nothing," he said, worrying about how he would feed his family without work in Libya. "Someone has to find a solution before we have to start eating each other."
The Egyptian army, which beefed up its presence at the border on Tuesday, chartered minibuses in large numbers to transport the migrant workers, and their luggage piled high on the roofs, closer to their hometowns.
Over the border gates — bearing the words "Salloum Land Port" in English — snapped a big Egyptian flag in the southerly breeze.
To the side was parked an Egyptian battle tank, as rifle-toting soldiers in camouflage fatigues got lost among the endless stream of compatriots lugging dusty suitcases and, occasionally, wearing blankets on their shoulders.
In normal times, the daily express bus between Cairo and Salloum, a dusty Bedouin seaside town that is the last Egyptian community on the road into Libya — takes 17 hours.
In the local hospital, a doctor said 15 people had been admitted with injuries — most from two road accidents, but also five Egyptians who had been attacked at their workplace, a Libyan state-owned company in Benghazi.
The hospital had also seen a Libyan who lost his eyes in an attack.
One fleeing Egyptian gave the doctor a video from inside Libya, seen by AFP, that showed 20 people, some in uniform, who had been made to lie on the floor. Each one had a bullet hole in the back of the head.
