CYPRUS: Evacuees get set up in transit camps as Cyprus fills up with those escaping Israeli attack on Lebanon

Various countries with large populations leaving Lebanon have constructed campgrounds with row upon row of beds in facilities such Larnaca's basketball stadium where over two and half thousand Canadians will be sheltered after disembarking from ships arriving from Lebanon. Canada has one of the largest populations of citizens in Lebanon estimated at least at 40 thousand. The stadium in Larnaca is close to the island port where over the last weeks scores of ships have been unloading evacuees. Swiss officials have also set up a camp in a local school for some 250 of their citizens. The large numbers have caused a buildup in Cyprus as people must wait to be included in chartered flights leaving from the country's airport. Several specially chartered flights have been placed to accommodate all the nationals trying to get out, but Larnaca's small airport can handle only so many flights. The first to stage holding shelters was the United States after evacuating thousands and placing them in transit at fairgrounds. Many of the evacuees were of Lebanese origin and expressed their anger over the events taking place in Lebanon. 'This inhuman. Families are lost. People are apart. This is unfair. This is not human, against human rights. We want people to stand up. And this is unfair for Lebanon, unfair for humankind. Children are dying. As you see everyone is tired, everyone is sick. We want to go back to our homes in peace," said one Swiss national. Showing stress and exhaustion they said they were eager to get home.

ITN Source | July 24, 2006

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