Libya 7+"!5&03/-" "0%"+"40
3/&+3.6,+"9 .,,%1+&+#&++ "*+$".0 &+$-,."/"!"+$&+"".&+$ ,*-+5 ,1/0"!+#./0.1 01."/
r Foo and his colleagues were based in Al Marj, a small city in the north-east of Libya, 100
kilometres east of Benghazi where Boustead had been designing and building a 1,164-villa township project since July 2007.
While demonstrations had spread to Libya, many thought that under the country’s harsh regime, violence and unrest would not spread. “Although we’d heard about the protests in Benghazi we didn’t expect the city would be overrun so fast”, says Mr Foo.
Lucky escape In the early hours of February 20 looters broke into the quarters where the Boustead team was staying. “They spent about an hour ransacking the
4 INTERNATIONAL SOS
//&/0&+$*"*"./3&0%&**&$.0&,+0 0%")0&.-,.0
place and made off with cash, our laptops, TV sets, even our vehicle”, says Mr Foo.
Lucky to escape with minor bruises, Mr Foo climbed onto a roof to phone colleagues in Benghazi who arrived with three vans to take the team to safety. Making slow progress the convoy moved through mass fighting on the streets to Benghazi's international airport.
Stories from
00%"/0.0,#&53/$"+".))5-". "&2"!/.")0&2")5),3.&/(1/&+"// "+2&.,+*"+0" ))&+$0%".-&!!"/ "+0&+0, %,/&+0%" ,1+0.503, +0".+0&,+)*"*"./0")),#0%"&."4-".&"+ "/
The Boustead teams caught the last flight to Tripoli before Benghazi’s airport shut down.“We almost didn't make the flight and had to pay a Libyan airport employee US$500 before he would give us our boarding passes”, said Mr Foo.
Time to pull out By coincidence, Boustead chief executive Michael Teo had arrived in Tripoli on February 8 for a regular visit. “We were preparing to evacuate, with plans to spend a few days securing our equipment. But after the robbery in Al Marj, we decided it was time to pull everyone out”, he says.
Infrastructures'
" "&2&+$*"*"./00%")0#"..5 0".*&+)
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12