35,860 Chinese evacuated from Libya all back home
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A total of 35,860 Chinese nationals evacuated from Libya had all returned home, said a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry late Saturday night.
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Zhang Chunyan (L, back) and her four daughters exit Hongqiao International Airport upon arrivals in east China's Shanghai on March 5, 2011. [Xinhua] |
A chartered Shanghai Airlines flight FM608 touched down in Shanghai Hongqiao Airport at 11:15 p.m. Saturday, bringing back home the last group of 149 evacuees, who had earlier been transferred to Malta from Libya.
From Feb. 22 to March 5, the Chinese government organized an overseas evacuation of citizens by air, land and sea -- its largest since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, involving 91 domestic chartered flights, 12 flights by military airplanes, five cargo ferries, one escort ship, as well as 35 rented foreign chartered flights, 11 voyages by foreign passenger liners and some 100 bus runs.
Beginning Feb. 23, the Chinese government sent out three multi-departmental working groups to Libyan capital Tripoli and Libya-Tunisia bordering areas, eastern and middle Libyan cities Benghazi and Misratah, and southern city Sebha respectively to help with the evacuation work, according to the ministry.
As of March 2, all Chinese in Libya who desired to go back and whose whereabouts were known by the foreign ministry -- 35,860 in number, had been evacuated from the African country, and they were all back home by March 5.
