A friend of mine just got back on one of the charter flights. Here's what he said:
On the Ground In Tripoli.
The situation these is extremely violent and there is chaos everywhere. Lawless and Anarchy has set in. There are groups driving around the area where I was with AK 47's randomly shooting into the air and the hoarding around our site was peppered with gunshot holes. Fortunately noone was injured in the site and we had some 1400 personnel housed there, me included.
Getting to the Airport on three occassions was a nightmare and there are roadblocks everywhere manned by Malitia in some areas, army in other areas and who knows who in other areas. Smile and pay the bribes and hopefully you get on your way.
The airport when I eventually got there yesterday was like a cattle market. There was, I estimate some 15,000 people crowded outside the terminal, trying to get in with no hope of getting on a flight. I stood there wondering how I was going to get in. I was travelling light as there was no way I was getting through with my suitcase etc so all I had was my computer bag and a small backpack with my valuables. After about an hour I spotted two europeans with hi-vis jackets on and it was the FCO coming to the rescue. they took me to the marshalling area for the British and logged me in and assured me that the flight was on its way from UK to collect us. Then it started to rain. No shelter and it was cold. There was approx 120 Brits waiting under on Gazebbo for shelter. Not the fault of the FCO I might add as the space was limited and the Authorities would not allow anything else.
We were concerned about how we would get into the Terminal when we were eventually advised it was time to move. there were approx 2500 Egyptians who had dominated the position that was the only entrance into the terminal and they had no hope of getting in as there were no Egyptian flights out. They had been there for 4 days trying to get in and were obstructing everyone else who tried to get in. The Libyan police batton charged them on a few occassions and cleared the way but they soon reformed until later in the day the Army resorted to Tear Gassing them and they still returned but this time in an orderly queue and still it was like a gauntlet to get into the Terminal.
The FCO staff did a marvelous job on the ground and especially a Libyan by the name of Mansood, he was an absolute star, who paved the way for us via bribes, baton weilding henchmen, and a lot of pushing and shoving, we got in to the terminal only to find that it was nearly as bad inside. The area outside the terminal is like a cess pit. Literally human excreta and urine everywhere.
Every step of the way was a bribe and only US dollars were acceptable currency. Heaven and the British Government alone knows the cost to get us through.
Once inside the terminal the FCO arranged the boarding passes and 20 of us were invited to exit via an Irish Airforce aircraft which was scheduled to leave shortly. I volunteered to get onto this one and off we went through immigation, (more bribes) xray (bribes) gate entry (bribes) and then onto a bus to get to the aircraft (again bribes). We drove around the stands looking for the aircraft for 30 minutes and then returned to the terminal only to be advised that the aircraft had already left empty as they needed to fill the take off slot.
We were then led back to the immigration area to wait for the next flight, the BP charter.
My quest started at 10am and it was now 1 am the this morning and still I was not on a flight. We could see the charter flight but they would not let us board as we were waiting for another 150 passengers to get through all the bull **** which we had already done.
2 hours later another 50 passenger arrived and they let us board but only after 2500 dollars to refuel the flight and 2500 dollars landing fees all payable in cash to some nameless official.
More body scans, xrays bribes and we got onto the plane. We waited for another hour for more passengers and the crew were running out of hours, they were already into their emergency hour. The captain eventually called it and then we had to bribe another bod to push back for take off. The tower then questioned the flight plan and another short delay occurred. We were beginning to think that we would be held there and the crew hours would run out and we would be there for another 6-8 hours at least.
Thankfully the Captain got clearance to leave and off we went with a huge cheer as the aircraft eventually left the runway and turned north for home.
I cannot thank the FCO and Home office staff on the ground for the hard work they all put into getting as out of Libya. They worked tirelessly and professionally at all times and were a credit to the British Government.
These has been a lot of criticism levelled at the government over the handling of this affair and if only people realised the difficulty of dealing with the Libyans you they would realise how onerous a task this was for them. The Libyan officials did everything they could to mess us around and made no attempt at any time to assist in getting anyone out of their country in these difficult times. I take back what I said about the "Ice Cream Salesman" on Tuesday. His team came through and thanks to them I am home, safe and warm in my own home and with my friends and family.