Arab Spring

In February 2011, tens of thousands of people tried to flee Libya, crowding the Tunisian border post at Ras Ajdir. The regime responded with force against the first signs of popular protest, and armed clashes soon ensued. Foreign workers in the country, originally from Egypt, Ghana, Bangladesh, China and Vietnam, tried to cross into neighbouring Tunisia. This exploited mass of people, now jobless, had just one goal: to escape the violence in Libya that by then had broken out between rebels and the army loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.