British officials were drawing up plans with NATO allies to rescue hundreds of international oil workers stranded in camps in the Libyan desert.
With an SAS contingent reportedly on stand-by to assist, Defence Secretary Liam Fox said there would be an “international co-ordinated effort” to extract the workers left at the mercy of armed gangs.
As the first British nationals to be evacuated from the strife-torn North African state began arriving home, David Cameron said he was “extremely sorry” for the delays to the rescue operation and promised lessons would be learned.
At least two Perthshire men are among those caught up in the chaos that has engulfed the country, as a rebellion attempts to oust the country’s leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
The unnamed men are part of a 300-strong team of oil workers, many of them Britons and foreign nationals, trapped on the Amal oilfield in the country’s Eastern Desert.
Without supplies for more than 72 hours, they have been confined within a secured compound on the oilfield for days.
Reports suggest the compound has been intermittently under siege, with the site having been fired on, while the occupants have listened to hours of gunfire echoing through the landscape around them.
The men have been in touch with their families in Perthshire, who have in turn contacted local politicians, including the SNP’s Pete Wishart in the hope of speeding up their rescue.
However, they declined to have their loved ones named in the media.
Initial advice called upon the oilfield employees to make a break for the Libyan capital Tripoli, some 1000km away, but they remained in the compound, so volatile is the local situation.
Both men are thought to work for subsidiaries of the energy industry services giant Halliburton.
The UK Government and the Foreign Office have been attempting to help British nationals leave the country as quickly as possible.Rescue flightA plane chartered by oil companies for employees, touched down at Gatwick on Thursday with 79 passengers aboard, while a number of government-chartered flights have also now left Libya.
However, there remain hundreds of foreign nationals in country, packed into airports or trapped within high security oil installations within remote desert areas.
Those stranded within the isolated desert camps are of increasing concern to the British Government as they are now struggling to make contact with relatives and the authorities as phone networks are disrupted.
Supplies of food and water are beginning to run out.
Workers on the Amal oilfield, one of the largest fields in the country itself the largest proven oil producer in Africa now find themselves within a part of the country almost entirely under the control of protesters and defecting army units.
There are hopes to get them out via plane, as the oilfield does have its own secured airstrip, and flights are awaiting permission to head out to Libya.’Woefully inadequate’However, Perth and North Perthshire MP Pete Wishart described as “woefully inadequate” the response of the Foreign Office to the dangers being faced by UK citizens.
He spoke to First Minister Alex Salmond in advance of Mr Salmond’s discussions with foreign secretary William Hague.
“The plight of foreign oil workers trapped in the desert in Libya is causing real concern to their families back home,” he said.
“I have been contacted by the families of two Perthshire men in such a situation.
“The response of the Foreign Office to the danger being faced by UK citizens in this troubled and dangerous part of the world has been woefully inadequate.
“I know that the first minister is speaking with the foreign secretary to express the Scottish Government’s concern about the situation and I spoke with Alex to fill him in on the details of the cases.
“I have also written directly to William Hague myself and the details of the situation that these men find themselves is desperate and sounds extremely frightening.
“I understand that the oil installation in which they are under siege has its own landing strip, large enough to take a Hercules transport plane and I am urging the foreign secretary to do everything within his power to bring these men home to Perthshire quickly and safely.”
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