Brussels, 13/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is to make available a further €10 million of emergency humanitarian aid to fund the evacuation and repatriation of the many foreign nationals still fleeing the ever more intense fighting in Libya, especially around the town of Misrata. The announcement was made on Wednesday 13 April, the day on which the funding decision was adopted.
The money, from the budget of the Commission's humanitarian aid and civil protection wing ECHO, will be allocated through the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which coordinates operations to repatriate fleeing migrants.
This additional sum takes the total amount of aid allocated by the Commission to help the vulnerable in Libya since the outbreak of the conflict to €40 million. When member state's contributions are included, EU humanitarian aid in response to the crisis amounts so far to €96 million.
IOM operations rely heavily on the provision of air transport services by member states, whose in-kind contributions are coordinated by the MIC (monitoring and information centre), within the framework of the EU civil protection mechanism. (A.N./transl.rt)