Minister of Manpower and Immigration Khaled al-Azhary on Wednesday said he agreed with the Libyan authorities that they disburse compensation to the families of the Egyptian workers who were killed during the Libyan revolution.
The compensation is the same amount as the sum disbursed for Libyan citizens who died.
There are no detailed statistics for Egyptian workers in Libya. Egyptian reports say there were around 1.5 million at the time when the revolution against Muammar Qadhafi started. Thousands fled the country during the revolution.
State-owned newspaper Al-Ahram had quoted Libyan Minister of Manpower and Immigration Fathi Fikry saying in March that 180,000 Egyptians had submitted forms for compensation, mostly relating to unpaid wages, money in Libyan banks that they could not transfer or loss of property and belongings. By comparison, 140 forms for compensating relatives of Egyptians who lost their lives during the Libyan revolution were submitted.
In July, state-owned newspaper Al-Akhbar had quoted Ahmed Kamal, leader of the Egyptian community in Libya, as estimating the total compensation at more than US$2 billion for the 450,000 Egyptians who left after the revolution, and another 850,000 who chose to stay.
Edited translation from MENA
