Head of fishermen in Kafr al-Sheikh, Ahmed Abdo Nasser, said on Friday that about 300 Egyptian fishermen who were trapped at the seaport of Misrata in Libya have managed to escape with 10 fishing boats and headed to Egypt.
Nearly 1,000 fishermen from Borg Meghaizel have been trapped in Libya for 10 days due to ongoing armed conflict there, Nasser added.
The fishermen who managed to escape are now risking their lives every moment as they travel through unprecedented cold weather and wind, which has reached new lows unheard of in years, he said.
He pointed out that all fishing ports on the Mediterranean Sea have been shut down for almost a week.
Meanwhile, relatives of the 10 Egyptian fishermen trapped in Libya pleaded to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the Foreign Ministry to coordinate with the Libyan authorities and to save their loved ones. They stressed the fishermen entered Libya legally.
The 10 fishermen are from three villages in Assiut and travelled a month ago.
Faiza Ali Mahmoud, mother of a stranded fisherman Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan, said her son was on his third trip to Libya since the middle of last month to make a living.
She added Hassan works as a carpenter, pointing out that he and his four brothers travel to Libya constantly for work there.
Sally Ahmed Suleiman Abdel Aal, Hassan's wife, said her husband called her twice. The first was after he was held for 10 days, and the second 15 days later.
Hassan's brother said that his brother traveled from the Burg al-Arab in Alexandria to Tobruk, Libya, with nine of his friends. After 10 days he called his wife and told her that the police arrested them and would release them within three days. He stressed his brother entered Libya legally.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
