By IRNA,
London : Prime Minister David Cameron switched his attention to offering humanitarian assistance for foreign nationals fleeing Libya after being criticised for adopting a belligerent military stance over the crisis.
Cameron announced Wednesday that Britain will provide emergency relief flights to repatriate up to six thousand people stranded in Tunisia.
‘I think it is vital to do this, these people shouldn’t be kept in transit camps if it is possible to take them back to their home and I am glad that Britain can play such an important part in doing that,’ he told parliament.
He said that it was important ‘to make sure this emergency doesn’t turn into a crisis’ and Department for International Development teams had been sent to the borders of Libya.
His announcement came as opposition Labour Leader Ed Miliband challenged the prime minister on where he stood on his proposal to impose a no-fly zone after a number of foreign governments had since ‘distanced themselves’ from the idea.
The British prime minister acknowledged that there would be some difficulties enforcing zone and said the UK would comply with international law.
But he insisted it was important to start planning in case the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi took ‘further appalling steps to oppress his people’.
The decision to send relief flight follows the UN’s request for international assistance to held evacuate foreign nationals caught in the crisis.
The UK Government is providing three commercial charter planes on rotation to fly the people away from the camps back to their home, as the most effective method of helping tackle this emerging humanitarian disaster.
The first two planes were scheduled to leave East Midlands Airport in central England and Stansted, south of London, on Wednesday and fly to Djerba airport in Tunisia to collect stranded migrants and fly them to Cairo where they will be met by the Egyptian authorities.
The Department for International Development has already flown 36,000 blankets and tents for 1,500 people in Tunisia and remains in close contact with the UN and others to get more relief supplies in and people out.