A six-person emergency civil assistance team led by Ireland's Ambassador to Rome, Pat Hennessy left Tripoli this evening.
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the crisis team was leaving Tripoli for Malta on a Canadian evacuation flight tonight in light of the sharply deteriorating security situation and the fact that no Irish citizens remained at the airport or were known to be travelling to the airport. The situation will be reassessed in the morning. Members of the consular team and Air Corps aircraft will remain in Malta for deployment to Tripoli as necessary.
The Department said 21 Irish people remain in Tripoli. All Irish people who were at Tripoli airport today were accommodated on outgoing flights.
The12 Irish people who were in Benghazi were all evacuated by sea today.
Efforts were made by the team on the ground in Tripoli and by the Department's crisis centre in Dublin to contact all remaining citizens reported to be in Tripoli. It is likely that a number of these have already left. Of those contacted, a small number indicated a desire to leave but said that they were unwilling or unable to risk travelling to the airport.
Meanwhile, arrangements are being put in place tomorrow for the Air Corps to fly to Dublin tomorrow with a number of citizens who were evacuated by sea from Libya to Malta today.
At this stage, a small number of Irish citizens remain in desert areas of the country. These are mostly employees of foreign companies. The Department is working with the companies and EU partners to
ensure that they are included in evacuation arrangements.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the Government is doing everything possible to help the Irish citizens.
“We’re doing everything we can, it’s quite a chaotic situation in Tripoli at the moment,” he said after voting in Tullamore today. “It’s a very troubling situation, it’s very worrying and concerning situation. We’re awaiting for the safe return of Irish citizens and we are continuing all our efforts.”
While Tripoli remained largely locked down yesterday, pro-Gadafy militiamen and African mercenaries raided homes, making arrests, and took bodies from hospital morgues.
However, Col Gadafy’s hold on cities and towns around the capital came under challenge, with disturbances and protests reported in many areas. The southern oil fields were reported to be under rebel control. Gadafy loyalists opened fire on anti-government protesters in Tripoli today, killing at least four people.
The Air Corps' 25-seater CASA landed at Tripoli airport on Wednesday night, but officers on board were not allowed to disembark or make contact with the Irish waiting in the terminal.
Irish people had been gathering in the terminal from early morning in anticipation of the flight. At one stage, they boarded a bus and went out on to the tarmac to find the aircraft after British foreign office representatives told them it was waiting, but it had already left.
At a press briefing yesterday, Peadar Carpenter, co-ordinator of the emergency crisis centre in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin, said the officers did not have pre-entry clearance when they landed and were unable to negotiate visas. They were not allowed to use phones, he said, and could not contact anyone.
"They stayed there for four or five hours trying to negotiate and to see if they could get any change, but despite all their best efforts they could not get agreement to even go into the airport terminal to talk to our citizens," Mr Carpenter said.
What had happened was "very, very regretful", he said. The problem was that Ireland did not have a presence on the ground in Libya.
Secretary general of the department David Cooney complimented his staff’s hard work and said he was very pleased with how they had approached the crisis.
When there was no embassy on the ground, they couldn't be there "to hold people’s hands", he said. "The best advice we can give them is to try to get out on a commercial flight and be careful."