By Dominique Soguel / AFP
SALUM: The classic chaos of a nursery school has taken over the Salum border post on the Egypt-Libya frontier, where around 60 children are stuck as their parents refuse to return to their countries of origin.
African-print sarongs and mattresses soften the concrete edges of the empty custom officer booths at the post, rendering them ‘child-proof.’
Outside, a cheer of “one, two, three” is followed by sky high laughter and the thud of toddlers falling like dominos face first onto the floor after a victorious round of tug-rope organized by a team of volunteers from UNICEF and the Giza-based Egyptian Sea Scouts.
“We come to play with the children every day,” said Osama Gubail, a volunteer of the Egyptian Sea Scouts, gesturing to three chests of toys coated with a thin film of sand.
The activities start at 9:00 am and end at 3:00 pm after a colour and paint session for the smaller children while older youths play handball over a rickety net or football with improvised goal posts marked out by buckets.
“We’ve been doing this for two months,” said the 20-year-old volunteer, adding that rotating teams of five volunteers from Giza City, about 600 kilometres (375 miles) away, head for week-long missions to the border outpost, one of the main exit points for people fleeing violence in Libya.
“When we arrived we had nothing but now we have everything,” said Ahmed Abdelhamed, another volunteer. “We set up a buffet, a first aid station and a clean-up committee.”
He said there are about 60 children of sub-Saharan African origin — mostly Chad, Niger and Sudan — still stuck at the border because their parents refuse to return to their countries of origin.
Many of them are squatting in and around the customs control complex, living in
makeshift tents while they wait for a country to offer them asylum since Egypt has rejected them as refugees.
“Some have been here for more than 20 days,” Abdelhamed said. “They are waiting for refugee status in a third country.”
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the special representative for children and armed conflict at the UN Secretary General’s office said children are among the victims of the Libyan conflict.
She said her office continued to receive “credible information” that children were being used by armed forces and groups, especially in the besieged city of Misrata.
“The killing and maiming of girls and boys must end. And I remind all parties that attacks on hospitals and denial of humanitarian aid are also grave violations against children,” she said in a statement Tuesday.
A trio of Chadian young women, meanwhile, weave their way through the crowd at Salum towards a family caravan of two cars, casting a forlorn glance over their shoulder at the conflict-racked Libya they are leaving behind.
“I’m really nervous,” said Sahra, age 20, apprehension kicking in ahead of an evacuation flight later out of Cairo — her first plane ride. “I’m from Chad but I’ve never been there.”
The journey that Sahra, who was studying English literature in Benghazi before the start of the revolution, is undertaking is shared by thousands of teens and children who are travelling to their parents’ homeland for the first time.
She said her parents had lived in Benghazi for over 40 years, her father working in the oil sector.
They had now joined thousands of Chadians leaving the rebel-held city were leaving due to the “bad situation.”
The government of Chad on April 3 denounced reprisal attacks against the Chadian community, notably in rebel-controlled areas, where they have been accused of providing mercenaries to forces loyal to Moammar Qaddafi.
“I grew up in Libya, so I am sad to leave,” said Sahra before answering a goodbye phone call. “But things are not the same for us anymore in Benghazi.”
Hawa, Sahra’s younger sister, however expressed greater optimism.
“I am happy because I want to go back to school,” said the 16-year-old.
Schools in Libya’s rebel east have been closed since the revolution erupted and now children make up volunteer teams of traffic police in the rebel stronghold as it strives to provide services of a state as quickly as possible.
“We could open the schools in Benghazi because now it is calm,” said Ahmed Al-Hussein, a cross-border driver. “But we don’t out of solidarity with the children of Misrata and other cities attacked by Qaddafi’s forces.”
