Egyptians fleeing Libya speak of the fall of western towns

In the desert close to the frontier with Libya the buses unload their cargos at the new camp which has sprung up in the last 24 hours.

Run by the Tunisian army it is there to register and process people coming over the border from western Libya.

I realise those words might sound a little sinister – but this is a warm Tunisian welcome and within hours of resting in the tents, they are off to Djerba airport for flights home to Algeria and Egypt.

Many of the Egyptians say they will have the party of a lifetime when they get home to a country transformed from the one they left to find work on the building sites of Libya.

They also have word, of course, on the situation in the west of the country. The consensus seems to be that Colonel Gaddafi’s forces are rapidly losing their grip on key western towns, such as Zuara on the coast which apparently fell today.

All the Egyptians we spoke to said they’d encountered no problems on the road out from Zuara, or indeed the capital Tripoli, in terms of government forces. Most said they simply put the boot down – virtually the only government forces were those controlling the border.

From where I stand now I can see the green flags of Col Gaddafi flying high on the Libyan checkpoint. In these situations the flags come down pretty damned quick when territory changes hands.