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China concludes western-route evacuation in Libya

Xinhua, March 5, 2011

China's western-route evacuation efforts in violence-wracked Libya ended early Saturday as the last group of stranded Chinese workers boarded in Djerba a chartered plane headed for Guangzhou, southern China.

Chinese nationals go through the entry formality when arriving in Beijing by a Chinese air force transporter in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2011. Four Il-76 MD transport aircrafts, carrying 287 Chinese nationals evacuated from Libya, arrived in Beijing Friday. [Zha Chunming/Xinhua]

The Boeing B-777 operated by China's Southern Airlines, carrying 344 employees of the Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG), took off from the Tunisian island of Djerba at 1:10 a.m. local time (0010 GMT).

Zhuo Ruisheng, counselor of the Chinese embassy in Tunisia and chief of the western-route evacuation mission, said that as many as 10,675 Chinese nationals have been evacuated to Tunisia from western Libya since Feb. 23.

A total of 10,158 Chinese evacuees who had entered Tunisia overland at the Ras El Jedir border crossing have flown back to China or are on their way home aboard 34 flights. Meanwhile, the other 517 evacuees have returned home through other channels, Zhuo said.

Zhuo described the western-route evacuation as a great success. He said the effort was a huge, complex mission due to limited time and the large number of evacuees.

Thanks to the great performances of some 30 staff members, tens of thousands of Chinese evacuees safely crossed the Tunisia-Libya border and were settled in 23 hotels on Djerba, Zhuo said.

You Aizhong, the BCEG's Libyan project manager, told Xinhua the group has evacuated some 2,851 workers and they are all ready to return to Libya at any time to finish the cooperation project.

You said the workers really appreciated the timely evacuation their country carried out, speaking highly of the quick and effective response of the Chinese government.

You also expressed gratitude to the many people who contributed to their evacuation from Libya.