U.S. sending aircraft to help Libya refugees

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Djerba, Tunisia (CNN) — U.S. military aircraft and French charter jets joined efforts to get thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Libya back home Wednesday as the United Nations called for stepped-up aid to refugees.

Nearly 180,000 people, mainly foreign workers, have fled to the neighboring nations of Tunisia and Egypt amid fighting between government troops and rebels pushing to oust longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi, the U.N. refugee agency reported. About 95,000 people have crossed into Tunisia and another 83,000 into Egypt, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimated.

In Washington, President Barack Obama told reporters that he has approved the use of U.S. military aircraft to help return to Egypt those Egyptian citizens who have fled to Tunisia to escape unrest in neighboring Libya Obama said he also authorized the U.S. Agency for International Development to charter additional planes “to help people from other countries find their way home.”

“Tens of thousands of people from many different countries are fleeing Libya, and we commend the governments of Tunisia and Egypt for their response, even as they go through their own political transitions,” Obama said.

And Zuheir Badr El-Din, the top airport official in the Tunisian city of Djerba, told CNN that France plans to fly chartered jets between that coastal city and Cairo six times a day for five days.

Chaos has reigned on the Tunisian border for days as thousands clamor to get out of Libya, and many have been trapped in a no-man’s land between the two countries. Thousands more were housed in tents provided by UNHCR and the Tunisian military, and many have little money and no travel documents with them.

In Djerba, about 90 km (55 miles) from the border, hundreds of refugees waited for flights out Thursday. Some napped on the floor, or sat up against the walls waiting. But the process appeared orderly given the volume of passengers, as airport officials moved them along in orderly lines with no pushing or shoving.

The majority of passengers carried only small bags with the bare necessities that they managed to escape with. One elderly man checked in with only a tightly wrapped blanket — the only possession that survived his journey out of Libya.

Earlier Thursday, UNHCR sounded an urgent appeal to governments to help in a mass evacuation that is required to get people out. And after a call between Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon representatives of Middle Eastern, European and U.N. organizations, the world body called for help to avert a humanitarian disaster.

“There is a strong need for urgent relief — food, water, sanitation and shelter to the thousands on both sides of the Tunisian and Egyptian borders due to significant population movements, mainly of migrant workers,” a U.N. statement warned. “It is also necessary to prepare for a further possible escalation of humanitarian needs should conditions deteriorate inside Libya.”

The participants in Thursday’s talks, which included the Arab League, the European Union and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, urged Libya to allow “immediate and unimpeded access” to determine what was needed.

“The situation here remains tense,” said Firas Kayal, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency on the Tunisian border. “There is lots of congestion on this side of the border and we are hearing that many thousands are waiting on the Libyan side to come through.

Village bakeries have increased production to feed the stranded, he said.

“The local community has been so generous in providing food, medicines and places to stay, but the capacity of the local community is reaching its limit because the numbers are so huge,” he said.

The refugees include Bangladeshis, Vietnamese, Thais, Koreans, Malians, Ghanaians and Sudanese who came to Libya seeking work. But most of the workers are Egyptian citizens, and that country’s caretaker government has paid for flights from Djerba to Cairo to bring them back home.

CNN’s Raja Razek, Arwa Damon, Ivan Watson and Moni Basu and journalist Catriona Davies contributed to this report.