Dhaka, Bangladesh (NewsBahn) – Hundreds of relatives of Bangladeshi migrants living in Libya, which has been rocked in recent days with political violence, on Saturday blocked the Dhaka-Sylhet highway protesting the government’s inadequate evacuation plan.

Morning traffic came to a halt with thousands of passengers stranded on the busy highway. The standstill created queues of vehicles several kilometers long at the town of Bhairab, east of the capital Dhaka, for about two hours.

Nearly a thousand young people from Bhairab alone are employed in Libya.

Police removed the protesters blocking the highway. Officials assumes that the protest was organized to draw media attention. However, the protesters threatened to return if the government failed to repatriate the stranded Bangladeshis from Libya.

Frustrated mothers and wives of migrant workers in Libya said their loved ones had spoken on the phone that food rations were drying up and employers had fled without paying their wages.

The Bangladesh government on Saturday announced that steps are being taken for the repatriation of 4,000 stranded workers.

Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quoyes told reporters that more than 1,100 Bangladeshis have left Libya for Greece and Tunisia to take refuge.

“Another 6,000 will be evacuated within a day or two,” Expatriates’ Welfare secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan said at a joint press briefing.

“Some logistic supports are needed for a wholesale evacuation and Bangladesh lacks that,” he said, adding that physical insecurity in Benghazi had been reduced to a great extent.

Meanwhile, nearly 300 Bangladeshis have crossed the Tunisian border to take shelter in the country, the foreign secretary said.

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