Three Egyptians Die In Building Collapse In Libya

Three Egyptians died in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Monday when a building partially collapsed.

According to Mahmoud El-Zanati, member of the local council in Tripoli, the building’s ground-floor ceiling collapsed, killing Egyptians Mohamed Abdel-Hagiz, Amr Hassan and Mohamed Mohamed El-Hamdy.

El-Zanati said that an investigation of the accident has begun.

He added that the building, which had been empty of residents except for those on the ground floor, had previously been given an order of evacuation. A Libyan man, Wassim Al-Dohmany, had taken over the ground floor and then illegally rented it to the Egyptians who were killed.

Libya, with a population of 6.5 million people, has been a main destination for Egyptian migrants seeking work. According to a 2010 report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), some 1.5 million Egyptians had been working in the country at the time.

The number fell sharply, however, following the Libyan uprising in 2011, with at least 200,000 Egyptians fleeing their troubled North African neighbour in the wake of political unrest.

Source : Ahram