It is a nice place. People are prosperous and there is no major social disparity there. The days I spent in Tripoli were the best days of my life
"It is a nice place. People are prosperous and there is no major social disparity there. The days I spent in Tripoli were the best days of my life. You got everything so cheap there. Things, however, changed suddenly. I don't know what has happened, " said Sushil Kumar, who used to teach at a government medical college in Tripoli for the last eight years.
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| Sushil Kumar,medical professor,
from Noida |
As he stepped out of Terminal 2 of Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on Monday night along with his wife and two daughters, he was received by his father and elder brother. " Everything is fine. Your worries were wrong, Papa," he remarked while consoling his father who almost broke into tears on seeing them.
"Things have changed in Libya but they are not as bad as are being made out through television and other news reports. The situation is not as grave as is being depicted," he said while coming out of the airport.
Why did he then come back? " Family and social pressure. About two years back, my wife and two daughters had joined me in Tripoli. Now for past few weeks, reports of strife coming from Libya and the earlier reports from Egypt and Tunisia had left my parents here really worried about our safety and security. So, I had to come back," he said.u00a0 "My kids were studying there in a school. For the last one week, the schools were closed. But there was no tension as we all stayed indoors. I have left everything there," added Sushil
What about the protests that televisions and newspapers regularly report about?
"Actually there were protests and instances of stone pelting and burning of government property. But at no point was there any bombing of mob as was reported by international media. It's a fight between pro and anti Gaddafi groups. I can't say who is right or who is wrong. But it seems there is some external force adding fuel to this power struggle. If I found chaos anywhereu00a0 in Libya, it was at Tripoli airport. Thousands of people are stuck there. It's a real mess. If you talk about other parts of the country, situation is not that bad," he said.
Will he like to go back? " Definitely, let the things get normal. I want to go back. It is like second home for me," he said.
Crisis continuesThe United Nations refugee agency has said that more than 1,40,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries in recent days and thousands more were on the move since turmoil began in Libya. The agency warned that the situation at the Libya-Tunisia border was reaching 'crisis point' as thousands of people tried to flee the troubled state. Reports said the Tunisian guards opened fire repeatedly when refugees seeking to enter Tunisia through a narrow gate in a concrete wall threatened to slip out of control. The Tunisian border point of Ras Jdir has been swamped refugees and an exodus of foreign workers. Most are Egyptians but they also include Bangladeshis, Ghanaians, Malians and Tunisians. Most left Libya with little more than their clothes and have no way of making their own way home.u00a0 On Monday alone, 14,000 people crossed from Libya to Tunisia, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reported.
