to think that oil-workers who make a fortune..

[AnyoneforTurps]

..working tax-free in a notorious dictatorship shouldn't expect the Foreign Office to rescue them if it all goes tits up?

I feel for them & their families - it must be terrifying but when you chose to work some where like Libya, you're chosing to put yourself in harm's way. That's one of the reasons the ex-pat jobs pay so well. It must be awful now but they should stop blaming the UK government - no one forced them to work out there.

Not sure what they expect a small group of unarmed British civil servants in Tripoli to do about the fact that they are stuck. And I wonder when they last paid any taxes to support those civil servants.

Does that apply to everyone? Cause my next door neighbours and their 2 year old daughter are out there at the moment. He works in construction in Libya because the industry over here is somewhat 'slow'...he has to earn somehow.

They are british citizens with families here. So they have a right to help from the government.

YABVU the government has to try and keep it citizens safe wherever in the world they may be.

YABU - other countries are evacuating their people, our government are an embarrassment.

Many of the Brits are in Libya on business or working there because they cannot find work in the UK. Would you prefer them to be on benefits and having their houses repossessed?

dont be silly

A lot of people who I work with have been seconded abroad over the last couple of years. including several to Libya as there has been massive investment in infrastructure over the last couple of years. They will be getting their standard UK salary, plus a bit for expenses. Some tax free perks but nothing worth risking your life for.

YABU

YABU My godfather was in Libya and he was evacuated. He isn't British though and I'd be terrified for him if he was still stuck there. Wtf would you prefer them to do? Stay here on benefits and have nothing?

funnily enough I was going to start a similar thread along the lines of "to wonder whether it is the british government's responsibility..."

I am unsure tbh. On the one hand I do see that they are British citizens and that as such they are entitled to support. But on the other hand they have chosen to leave their country of birth and have chosen to go and work abroad in a country whose human rights record is well known, and while the current situation might not have been predictable, when you live in a country like libya there's always a chance that you will find yourself in a difficult situation.

Nobody is forced to go and work in a country with a dictator, its citizens don't have a choice but outsiders go there of their own choosing because of the money. Things aren't so bad in the UK that people are forced to go and seek employment in dictatorships with dodgy human rights records - there are other countries if you really feel you must go and work abroad.

Of course the government are getting involved wrt its own citizens but I think that it's a bit of a nerve criticising them for not working fast enough when you were the one that chose to be there in the first place.

I take it that you don't use oil products then.

YABVU. FYI the seats on the rescue aircraft don't come for free. The charge is approx. £300/person. There are NO commercial flights to the UK. BA and British Airways have suspended services for the time being.

Better that people work abroad than sit and claim benefits, plus those that work abroad also support jobs for people like me in the UK. They fly with my company, hence I have a job.

YABVVU!

The employer should be the one whose responsibility it is to get their employees out.

If a company is seconding its staff out to countries where the human rights records are questionable, then that company should be responsible for the safety of those employees and to see that there is a contingency plan in place should they need to be evacuated/should they get into difficulties in that country.

First of all - a lot of those people who are working in the oil fields will not have been given much of an option about where they are working.

Many of them will not be living there, tax free; but will be on a rotation out of the UK, so work there for 4 weeks at a time.

Often, oil / oil service companies will not give employees much of an option where their work will be. (This holds true for many of the service companies, less so for actual oil companies) Many will be told that their next job is in Lybia, Canada, Algeria, US, Nigeria etc etc, and when the flight is.
Believe me - most people would rather be working in the North Sea, Canada etc, rather than in the desert where you have to rely on guards with guns to protect you while you work.

I'm not objecting to evacuation flights. I'm objecting to Brits stuck in the desert moaning that "No one from the Embassy has come to get us" (Today programme & Channel 4 News).

I am really not sure if it makes a scrap of difference really wether they earn a fortune or a pittance TBH.

They are working in a country that the UK had a good relationship and a British Embassy, I could understand your beef if they were working in a country where there is no British Embassy presence.

Of course they should be helped, that is the Embassy staff's job.

What does YABU mean - I am new to these boards. :S

Clearly, HMG has a responsibility for the safety of its citizens around the world and this is demonstrated by its repeated execution of NEOs (non-combatant evacuation operations) in places as disparate as Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Uganda, Sierra Leone (amongst others).

That said, whilst I accept the chap on Radio 4 this morning (in a camp of 300 foreign workers in the middle of the desert) was scared, pissed off and desperate, he was wholly incorrect in saying that their pleas for assistance have been ignored.

I have been involved in the planning for the UK response over the past 48hrs and can assure him and others that they will not go ignored.

I agree with you OP

Bobolbach I couldn't agree more. My mum left this morning with my stepdad to go to china for 3 months and then Holland for 2 years. They were told this 3 weeks ago. It's crap but they made it very clear that if he turned it down he'd be out of a job.

Waswondering - yep, indeed! That said, it's always much more fun to be one of those heading out there, as opposed to be merely 'planning'!

YABVU unless you have never used any oil for anything, ever. Taking ridiculous musings out loud to new heights.

Is it because these people are in the oil indusrty that you have this attitude?
What if they were aid workers? Are they more deserving?
I know someone who is stuck out in the desert there at the moment.

The guards have left the camp, most of the locals have left to go back to the major cities or gone over the border, taking with them the transport and majority of the food and fresh water.
The jet (unusually for this area, there was a jet which services a number of camps) has been hijacked.

Now there are 12 people left in this one camp. UK nationals, Dutch, Canadians and French. Repeat that scenario all over the desert.
What the hell do you think these people can do? And you think because they work in an unpalitable industry thay should just suck it up?
Hey ho - all that extra day rate they will pull in will be wonderful to spend when they get home. Either that or the insurance pay outs for their families....

YABVU

Yeah, thinking about it, this has to be one of the most tasteless posts ever.

No doubt the OP also thought Ken Bigley had what was coming to him when he was beheaded.